The Government Digital Service (GDS) has set up two bodies to strengthen the future security of the GOV.UK Verify digital identity service.
It has formed an Identity Misuse Group and an Identity Risks and Standards Consortium to provide input to future efforts to make sure users’ digital identities are secure.
The Identity Misuse Group operates on the National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership platform and is open to anyone in government or industry with an interest.
The Identity Risks and Standards Consortium consists of representatives from academia and is chaired by Professor Tim Watson, direct of the Cyber Security Centre at the University of Warwick.
GDS has highlighted the steps on a blogpost, indicating that it is continuing to encourage the use of Verify for government services.
Changes announced last year encouraged speculation that that the programme for its online identity assurance service is running out of steam after the Government handed over responsibility for increasing use of the platform to the private sector identity providers.
But GDS has retained responsibility for promoting its use in the public sector, and at the end of the year published a set of priorities to provide more clarity around digital identity standards and an increase in the types of identity evidence that can be used.
“With identity fraud costing the government between £1 billion and £4 billion a year, we must continually evolve and grow our security measures to counter identity crime,” the blog says.
Image from GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0
