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Digital identity is critical infrastructure for America. With government agencies increasingly moving online, the government must be able to complete digital identity proofing before offering services.

Government is where identity matters most as the use cases are very important and the consequences of fraud are high. Whether it’s a veteran accessing GI Bill benefits, a therapist trying to renew an occupational license or a small business owner looking for grants – all these people need to verify their identity at scale. If they are using a government account, logins and account management need to be secured to protect the user’s identity.

Socure, a leading identity verification provider, and Okta, a leader in identity and access management platform, have partnered to provide a pathway to secure, scalable, and accessible digital identity for the public sector.

Recently, Socure announced its Socure ID+ platform has achieved the “In Process” designation from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and is now listed on the FedRAMP Marketplace. This comes after previously announcing the addition of its platform to the State Risk and Authorization Management Program’s (StateRAMP) “Progressing” Product List after illustrating the core regulatory and industry-defined requirements for StateRAMP compliance.

Paired with Okta’s authorizations in FedRAMP & StateRAMP, these solutions now offer Government agencies at all levels scalable, simple, and secure identity built for the modern era. Achieving accurate and inclusive digital identity verification is critical to accelerating constituent service delivery for vital programs. This is made possible through the combination of Socure’s fully automated, AI- and ML- enabled approach to digital identity verification and Okta’s identity and access management platform, including adaptive multi-factor authentication, best-in-class compliance and security features, and modern, frictionless cloud infrastructure.

Digital identity is key to online government services

The public sector is moving toward online service delivery to meet the expectations of its constituents, reduce costs, and increase access and convenience for all. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the move to digital government and put legacy identity systems under pressure. After numerous incidents of online identity fraud during the pandemic that cost government programs billions of dollars, digital identity is now a top national priority. The recently released National Cybersecurity Strategy specifically mentions digital identity as a problem that needs to be solved in order to prevent fraud, broaden equitable access, and reduce economic inefficiencies.

However, there is significant work to be done to make online government services usable for Americans. A recent NextGov survey found that just 36% of Americans think government agency processes are intuitive and usable. Furthermore, the lack of a comprehensive digital identity approach leaves Americans from certain demographics and backgrounds underserved by the government.

Benefits of Socure and Okta

Socure and Okta work in tandem to provide digital identity that is easy-to-use, secure, scalable, and accessible.

The solutions combine Socure’s fully automated, AI and ML-enabled approach to digital identity verification with Okta’s identity and access management platform, which comprises compliance and security features, a modern cloud infrastructure, and adaptive multi-factor authentication.

Socure’s identity verification and fraud risk management platform improves digital enrollment workflows by auto-accepting more applicants, improving fraud capture, and reducing your dependence on knowledge-based authentication (KBA) and manual review. We’re already trusted by the top five state governments, the largest payroll provider in the US, four of the five largest US financial institutions, and a broad network of over 2,200 customers across a wide swath of industries.

Once a user is verified, they can move into Okta’s identity and access management (IAM) solution. Okta Universal Directory can centrally manage identities at scale and integrate with various applications on-site or in the cloud. The Okta Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication system offers phishing-resistant, passwordless MFA and contextual access policies based on risk factors such as network, device, travel, and location.

With Okta ThreatInsight, agencies can enable additional protection as the system is able to identify potentially malicious IP addresses and proactively block known threats.

These solutions work together to provide key benefits including:

  • Auto-approval of more eligible individuals (98% for mainstream populations, and up to 94% for hard-to-identify populations including Gen Z, millennial and new-to-country individuals)
  • More effective fraud prevention, capturing 90% of third-party identity fraud in the riskiest 3% of users
  • Reduction of manual reviews with fully automated identity verification and fraud prevention, with a response in milliseconds
  • Fast time-to-value with easy, secure connections across a variety of applications and on the cloud
  • Comprehensive approach to security with audited infrastructure and process
  • Reduction of the burden of password management with simple, passwordless MFA options
  • A variety of flexible authentication options that nearly everyone can use

How to get started

For more information about Socure & Okta solutions and providing a superior identity solutions without compromising security, contact the Socure team at Carahsoft at (833)-674-3990 or socure@carahsoft.com.

Brian Chidester

Brian Chidester is the Head of Public Sector Marketing at Socure and the host of "The Government Huddle with Brian Chidester" podcast from GovExec. Formerly, Brian served as the Industry Vice President for Global Public Sector at Genesys and has held global public sector leadership roles with OpenText, Appian, Monster Worldwide, Arrow ECS and S&P Global. He holds a B.S. in Communications Studies from Liberty University, is a Board Member for the University of South Florida - Muma College of Business, an advisor to the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance at the World Economic Forum, and a member of the Forbes Technology Council.