USA: towards a federal digital identity framework?

Identity theft is on the rise in the United States. Identity security experts have just published an open letter to President Joe Biden, proposing four measures to combat identity theft.

Signatories include Better Identity Coalition, the Identity Theft Resource Center, the Electronic Transactions Association, the National Cyber Security Alliance, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement Center.

The four measures proposed are:

• the establishment of a federal digital identity framework;
• the widespread use of mobile driver’s licences (mDLs), which are more secure than the physical version for online identification;
• the provision of direct assistance to victims of identity theft; and
• the establishment of identity attribute validation services.

The experts also called on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to create the standards and best practices that would make up the federal digital identity framework and to set rules to govern mDL deployment.

The context is favourable for a measure of this type, as Joe Biden is a strong advocate of improving digital security in the United States. The signatories therefore offered him « turnkey« elements for an Executive Order on this subject.