18F is Not a Feminine Who Can Vote (An Identification Verification Publish) – Bredemarket

If you’re a authorities company who makes use of Login.gov, or in case you are a U.S. citizen who has a Login.gov account, I’m unsure about the way forward for the service.

Again in November 2023, I wrote a publish that included the three letters “18F.” Particularly:

Clearly there are a variety of personal firms (over 80 final I counted) that present safe entry to info, however Login.gov is supplied by the federal government itself—particularly by the Common Companies Administration’s Know-how Transformation Companies. Companies on the federal, state, and native stage can work with the GSA TTS’ “18F” group to implement options equivalent to Login.gov.

Now maybe I’m, um, biased, however I occur to assume that identification verification, whether or not carried out by a public entity, is kinda sorta essential.

Which is why I took discover once I noticed Brian Krebs’ Saturday evening LinkedIn publish. Right here’s a brief excerpt:

That is from the chief director of the 18F, the digital providers company throughout the Common Companies Administration (GSA) that develops open-source instruments to enhance digital providers throughout the federal authorities.

“I’m the Government Director of 18F and 18F’s longest working employee- I’ve been at 18F for 10 years. You might not have heard of us, however final evening proved that we’re highly effective. The way in which the administration ran to eliminate us underneath the quilt of evening and shut us down with out warning proves that they had been scared. They’re too afraid to even communicate to us.”

Krebs additionally hyperlinks to a FedScoop article.

The Common Companies Administration has eradicated its 18F program, an inside workforce of tech consultants and engineers that develops open-source instruments to enhance digital providers throughout the federal authorities. 

The announcement, which got here in a single day, is the newest within the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to slash the federal workforce. It was foreshadowed weeks in the past when Elon Musk, who’s turn out to be a extremely influential and controversial voice within the White Home, tweeted that the decade-old program had been “deleted.” 

At this level I’m not certain how this impacts future updates to Login.gov. So far as I do know the service itself stays operational.

To be continued? Or not continued?