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A shared service for child support enforcement?
IRS stresses
BY TROY K. SCHNEIDER
If there’s an overarching theme in
the Trump administration budget’s domestic policy proposals, it’s to cut federal spending and push control down to the state level. The Child Support Technology Fund, however, would take a notably different approach.
HHS would purchase a new IT system for monitoring and enforcing child support payments at the state level. That system would then be
made available to state and territorial governments, replacing the current practice of HHS subsidizing states’ modernization efforts.
Investing in a single shared service would allow HHS “to avoid reimbursing up to 54 times over the costs associated with building new state systems” and save nearly $800 million over 10 years, according to the budget proposal.
States have struggled to develop effective child support collection and enforcement systems for years. Indiana, for example, gave up on a replacement for its Indiana Support Enforcement Tracking System after eight years of development.
The president’s budget does not specify how quickly the HHS-purchased system could be brought online, whether it would be a hosted solution or who would be responsible for maintenance and upgrades. •
security
identity
VR training for international drug investigators
BY SARA FRIEDMAN
Michael Anthony, the IRS’ director of identity and access management, said his agency has two seasons: filing season and preparing for filing season. And robust identity access management is critical for both.
Anthony said the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s digital identity guidelines will allow the IRS to leap ahead on levels of assurance by deploying features such as digital identity acceptance statements.
“We want to ensure our digital identity risk assessment process is forward- and backward-compatible with our current capabilities,” he said. “We’re currently performing an analysis to understand where gaps between
our current implementation and the new requirements may be, \\\[and\\\] we are going to continually assess and innovate since threat vectors and bad actors continue to evolve.”
Over the years, the IRS has been shoring up its identity access strategy with internal and external partners, including NIST and the Social Security Administration.
“One of the IRS’ future-state goals is to increase customer satisfaction through more cost-effective delivery channels such as online account access,” Anthony said.
Challenges arise, however, because many individuals might not have access to more sophisticated authentication tools.
“How do we digitally enable communities that may not have these devices?” he asked. “We need to manage end-user expectations balancing security, privacy and accessibility. We urge industry to innovate in this space.” •
BY MATT LEONARD
Investigating drug trafficking often involves crossing geographical boundaries, which can present obstacles and miscommunication because of investigators’ different cultural and legal perspectives.
To address the challenges, the European Commission’s Community Research and Development Information Service developed the LAW-TRAIN mixed-reality platform. Police forces can use it to train their officers in how to conduct joint investigative interviews.
“We know that training by role- playing is very beneficial,” said Professor Sarit Kraus, LAW-TRAIN coordinator for Bar-Ilan University in Israel. “But doing it with a team of
senior law enforcement personnel from different European countries is very difficult. All are very busy and located in different places.”
Before putting on an Oculus Rift headset, trainees are given details about the case and create a plan
for the interview with their peers. Once the program is running, they interview a virtual suspect who has
a virtual lawyer present. A “virtual trainer” observers the interview and provides feedback on performance and any deviation from the commission’s ethical guidelines.
LAW-TRAIN was designed as a generic engine, so scenarios for other types of illegal activities and other cross-border teamwork training will likely be developed, officials said. •
12 GCN FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018 • GCN.COM