Quick Hits
*** It's your last chance to register for FCW's Sept. 11 Digital Transformation Workshop. Presenters at this half-day event include the Defense Digital Service's Katie Olson, the National Archives and Records Administration's Lisa Haralampus, the General Services Administration's David Harrity, the U.S. Digital Service's Florence Kasule and more.
*** The agency tasked with managing federal civilian agency spectrum said the federal government is making progress in identifying government and commercial spectrum to repurpose for 5G wireless usage. A detailed report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration released Sept. 3 updates efforts up and down the spectrum dial.
The report also includes an update on an ambitious plan to combine radar and long-range detection needs for multiple agencies into a new group of solutions dubbed SENSR -- Spectrum Efficient National Surveillance Radar. The plan, unveiled in the last days of the Obama administration, was designed to consolidate and upgrade legacy radar systems operated by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Defense Department, Customs and Border Protection and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with an eye to freeing up 30 to 50 megahertz of spectrum in the 1300-1350 MHz band.
According to the report, NOAA withdrew its weather systems from the SENSR plan but continues to participate in planning. Studies are continuing and the report indicates they are expected to be finished in time to make a decision on repurposing the band by January 2022 with an eye to a possible spectrum auction in July 2024 under the terms of the Spectrum Pipeline Act.
*** The Social Security Administration announced the first 10 potential participants in a plan to allow financial institutions to verify social security numbers electronically. The planned service, dubbed eCBSV for electronic Consent Based Social Security Number Verification, is designed as an upgrade over the current paper signature-based consent system and is expected to reduce synthetic identity fraud – the construction of fake identities using real information including social security numbers. The eCBSV system works, said SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul, "by comparing data provided electronically by approved participants with the agency's records."
SSA will roll out the service to the initial 10 participants – including Discover, Experian, Navy Federal Credit Union and Capital One – in June 2020. This group will be able to service up to 20 "permitted entities" who can tap into the eCBSV to verify customer information. The initial rollout is limited to 124 permitted entities.
"I'm thrilled to see SSA move forward here," Jeremy Grant, Managing Director of Technology Business Strategy at Venable said in an email to FCW. "First, because eCBSV will change the game in the fight against synthetic identity fraud… and second, because what SSA is doing here provides a template for other agencies, in terms of the role that they can play in fighting identity fraud and playing a bigger role in identity proofing."