Collateral damage in a war against scammers
Until the pandemic, it was simpler to get unemployment benefits in Colorado and elsewhere. State security systems generally asked people to fill out a form with their personal information facts like their date of birth and their social security number to prove who they were. That was easy enough for many people.
But the last year has revealed that approach to be obsolete as scammers have used hordes of stolen identities to raid unemployment systems across the country, syphoning off hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent claims. In response, Colorado hired ID.me, which uses facial recognition to match people to their government documents, among other strategies. Other states are using other vendors and methods a necessary step, they said, to stop the bleeding.
ID.me CEO: 6 Hour Wait Times For Unemployment Identity Verification Should Decrease In 2 Weeks
CBS Denver 2 hrs ago Syndicated Local – CBS Denver
(CBS4) – In an effort to combat fraud, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment is paying a company called ID.me to verify unemployment claimants’ identities, and it has stipulated claimants must verify with ID.me to receive their unemployment payments. Some people are facing up to 10 hours of waiting for help with that verification process, many still unsuccessful and unable to talk to a real person.
In a one-on-one interview with CBS4’s Kati Weis, ID.me CEO Blake Hall said those hours-long wait times could soon be a thing of the past.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment offices in downtown Denver.
More than 200,000 people enrolled in Colorado’s unemployment system will have to verify their identities through an online platform operated by ID.me, a rapidly growing startup based in Virginia, to keep receiving benefits.
The change comes after the state has paid out untold millions of dollars in suspected counterfeit claims. The security upgrade, however, has caused headaches and delays for some legitimate beneficiaries.
The state has already rolled out the technology to smaller subsets of claimants, but it will require all unemployment users to sign up in the coming weeks.
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Happy Identity Management Day
Every dog has its day as the saying goes and it s increasingly the case that every aspect of information technology has one too a day that is, not a dog.
Today is Identity Management Day, created by the The National Cybersecurity Alliance and the Identity Defined Security Alliance. It s the first one so you can forgive the lack of greetings cards and themed balloons in the shops but there is plenty of industry comment.
Anurag Kahol, CTO and co-founder of Bitglass says, Identity Management Day emphasizes the importance of protecting our digital identities (which is increasingly critical as the acceleration of digital transformation efforts opens new doors for threat actors). With many internet users holding dozens of online accounts across various services, it has become more difficult for them to memorize numerous, complex passwords. Unfortunately, password reuse has become a common malpractice that increases the chances of account hijacking when o