Original broadcast 7/27/25
Fraud has always been a concern in government programs, but in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become a full-scale battlefield. And the attackers are getting smarter, faster, and more coordinated. That’s the warning from Linda Miller, CEO of The Audient Group and former Deputy Executive Director of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, and Jordan Burris, Head of Public Sector at Socure and former Chief of Staff to the Federal CIO at OMB.
Joining Fed Gov Today with Francis Rose, Miller and Burris painted a stark picture: foreign adversaries and cybercrime syndicates are routinely stealing billions from government programs by exploiting weak identity verification processes.
“
We’re seeing fraud at scale,” Miller said. “During the pandemic, organized crime groups from Nigeria, China, Russia, and other nations systematically attacked U.S. programs like pandemic unemployment assistance. But it hasn’t stopped—it’s only accelerated.”
At the heart of the problem is the outdated identity infrastructure still used by many agencies. “Fraud starts at the front door,” said Burris. “If you can’t verify who someone is before you deliver benefits, you’re inviting fraud.”
Miller adds that agencies often avoid looking too closely. “There’s a mindset of ‘if we don’t search for fraud, we won’t find it—and we won’t have to explain it,’” she said. “That has to change.”
The current approach—send the benefit first, chase the fraud later—is no longer viable. “We call it pay and chase,” said Burris. “But when funds are wired to a fake identity in a foreign country, you’re never getting that money back.”
Miller highlighted examples like the Federal Student Aid program, where bad actors have posed as students to secure loans and vanish before attending class. Burris warned that adversaries are now using AI tools to scale these attacks, while agencies are fighting back with legacy systems “like using a flip phone in a smartphone world.”
Both experts emphasized that agencies like the Small Business Administration and GSA are starting to lead on this issue, implementing preventative controls and modern ID verification platforms. But much more is needed.
So what’s the solution?
“It starts with admitting there’s a problem,” Burris said. “Then comes investment—in tools, in continuous verification, in public-private partnerships.” Identity must be treated like core infrastructure, on par with electricity and internet access.
Miller adds that the ROI case is clear: “HHS has already shown that preventative tools saved what would have been hundreds of millions in fraud losses. We need to highlight and scale those examples.”
The stakes aren’t just financial—they’re also reputational. “If people lose trust in government programs because of unchecked fraud, we all lose,” Miller concluded.
This is a call to action. The next breach or fraud event isn’t a question of “if”—it’s a question of whether we’ll be ready.