General Services Administration’s Login.gov announces certification of Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2) compliance, general availability for additional identity verification capabilities

October 09, 2024

WASHINGTON –  Today, the U.S. General Service Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services announced that Login.gov, the single sign-on platform that provides strong authentication and identity verification capabilities to government agencies, will begin offering a new independently certified NIST 800-63 Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2) identity verification option to its partners.

“Proving your identity is a critical step in receiving many government benefits and services, and we want to ensure we are making that as easy and secure as possible for members of the public, while protecting against identity theft and fraud,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “Login.gov’s new IAL2-compliant product offering is another milestone in ensuring agencies have a wide variety of strong identity verification options.”

Building on top of Login.gov’s strong identity verification offering, partner agencies will now have the option to select a new IAL2-compliant offering requiring a higher identity assurance level that will help their customers remotely verify their identity. This new IAL2-compliant offering adds proven one-to-one facial matching technology that allows Login.gov to confirm that a live selfie taken by a user matches the photo on a photo ID, such as a driver’s license, provided by the user. Login.gov does not use one-to-many facial identification and does not use these images for any purpose other than verifying a user’s identity. This approach reflects Login.gov’s longstanding commitment to ensuring the privacy of its users. Login.gov will continue to offer its existing strong identity verification and authentication solutions alongside this new IAL2-compliant offering.

In April, GSA announced a pilot of this new identity verification offering with facial matching along with general availability of an expanded in-person identity verification option at one of the thousands of participating U.S. Postal Service retail locations. Today’s announcement of independent IAL2 certification covers both the remote and in-person identity verification offerings transitions this new identity verification offering from pilot to general availability. All users verifying their identity with Login.gov will have the option of either online or in-person identity verification.

“Login.gov heard from our agency partners with higher-risk use cases that it was important that we offer a version of our strong identity verification service that is IAL2 certified,” said Hanna Kim, Director of Login.gov. “We’re glad that we’ve been able to do this while ensuring that users continue to have multiple secure pathways to verify their identity, whether that is in-person or remote. Looking ahead, we will continue to uphold our values of equity, privacy, and transparency by incorporating best-in-class technology and learning from academic and user research.”

Since launching in 2017, Login.gov has grown to serve more than 50 federal and state agencies, more than 500 applications, and more than 300 million annual sign-ins.

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About Login: Login.gov is a shared technology service within GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) that provides authentication and identity verification capabilities to government agencies. As the public’s “one account for government,” Login.gov gives the public the opportunity to use a single account to securely access services across participating government websites. Login.gov operates 24/7 support via phone and email. For assistance, visit www.login.gov/help.

About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us @USGSA.