Gov Tech Today

E77: Rebuilding Trust in Government Identity and Fraud Controls

Episode Summary

In this episode, Jennifer Saha interviews Jordan Burris, who leads Socure’s public sector business using AI to verify identity and predict fraud risk, drawing on his prior work in digital trust and as chief of staff to the U.S. CIO. Burris argues fraudsters—helped by digitized services and modern AI tools—are outpacing government, making old identity-proofing standards and “bouncer-at-the-club” checks insufficient at scale. They discuss how pandemic-era “pay and chase” benefit delivery created losses that are often unrecoverable once funds move overseas, and why agencies must shift to layered, preventative controls that reduce friction for legitimate users. Burris cites efforts in California (EDD, CalHEERS/ACA enrollment, DMV) and other states, and emphasizes sharing risk signals across agencies and with transparent vendor partners without broad PII transfer. He predicts success will mean manageable fraud rates and better citizen experience, with accountability led by senior agency leadership and organization-wide vigilance similar to cybersecurity.

Episode Notes

In this episode, Jennifer Saha interviews Jordan Burris, who leads Socure’s public sector business using AI to verify identity and predict fraud risk, drawing on his prior work in digital trust and as chief of staff to the U.S. CIO. Burris argues fraudsters—helped by digitized services and modern AI tools—are outpacing government, making old identity-proofing standards and “bouncer-at-the-club” checks insufficient at scale. They discuss how pandemic-era “pay and chase” benefit delivery created losses that are often unrecoverable once funds move overseas, and why agencies must shift to layered, preventative controls that reduce friction for legitimate users. Burris cites efforts in California (EDD, CalHEERS/ACA enrollment, DMV) and other states, and emphasizes sharing risk signals across agencies and with transparent vendor partners without broad PII transfer. He predicts success will mean manageable fraud rates and better citizen experience, with accountability led by senior agency leadership and organization-wide vigilance similar to cybersecurity.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:28 Jordan Burris Background

02:55 Why Fraud Is Surging

05:43 How Identity Checks Fail

07:49 Pay and Chase Breakdown

11:42 Building Prevention Programs

13:47 States Leading the Way

17:58 Breaking Data Silos

23:32 Five Year Fraud Outlook

26:06 Who Owns Fraud Risk

29:31 Closing Thanks and Wrap