Login.gov now accepts mobile driving licences to prove who you are
Americans can verify their identity for federal services with a licence from Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet instead of photographing a plastic card.
Login.gov, the sign-in service used across the US federal government, has begun widely accepting mobile driver's licences for identity verification. The General Services Administration (GSA), which runs it, announced the rollout in September. Eligible credentials can currently be presented from Google Wallet and Samsung Wallet, with more wallets planned.
The change replaces one of the weakest steps in remote identity checks: photographing a physical card and trying to tell whether the image is genuine. A mobile licence is cryptographically signed by the issuing state, so the service can check that it has not been altered.
The work runs under GSA's Next Generation Identity Proofing programme. Xcelerate Solutions and its subcontractor Socure said they are supporting the integration under the five-year, $163 million call order GSA awarded on 1 May. No new contract or funding was announced; the capability runs in Socure's FedRAMP Moderate environment with the same fraud checks used for other Login.gov verification.
"Government agencies are facing a new generation of identity fraud, where organized networks, synthetic identities, and AI-enabled attacks can exploit legacy systems faster than traditional defenses can respond," said Jordan Burris, who leads Socure's public sector business.
Built on standards
The implementation supports state-issued credentials based on the ISO/IEC 18013 family. Part 5 of the standard covers presenting a licence in person; part 7 extends it to unattended online transactions such as signing in to a government site. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence has been working with Login.gov on a reference architecture.
Colorado this month made its own mobile licence valid at airport security checkpoints. As more states issue compatible credentials, the federal front door can lean less on document scans and video selfies, which generative AI has made easier to fake.
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