Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Government launches login.gov to simplify access to public services

18f.gsa.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 173 posts

Re: Government launches login.gov to simplify access to public services

#51

Post by ihattendorf »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #29
gitchanhub wrote: post #15

We have a similar service in Hungary since 2005. I wonder why something like this was not a thing in the US before? I mean we are not a 3rd world country but definitly behind the US in almost every aspect. Is it something to do with the relationship between the states and the federal government?

The US is backwards in plenty of ways, honestly, and the government is frequently a good (bad?) example. Moved to Germany a year ago, the government just seems so competent and drama-free here in comparison.

Wasn't it Germany that had the electronic voting machines compromised?

Re: Government launches login.gov to simplify access to public services

#52

Post by ineptech »

pdabbadabba wrote: post #31

This appears valuable and well executed, but I worry that private businesses will be eager to outsource their authentication to this service, if they are allowed to. And once it's fully stood up, I suspect the government would be all too eager to oblige. This might be convenient, but might also mark the beginning of a major new point of U.S. government control over the Internet, with all the surveillance and other ci…

> Now seems like the time to set the expectation that this service may not ever be used by private websites.

Wha-huh? Why? What specifically is wrong with login.gov (or any government agency) running an oauth server and private websites allowing users to authenticate with it? How does that result in "a major new point of U.S. government control over the Internet"?

Re: Government launches login.gov to simplify access to public services

#55

Post by barsonme »

Micoloth wrote: post #35
forforthought wrote: post #18

Given that this is a typical identity provider, I'm curious there's interest to make this service available to the saas industry at large. For example, I'd rather NOT have to manage login credentials for my bank, mortgage car payment, and various airlines. I'd rather let login.gov handle it. Moreover, as a saas provider, I wouldn't mind deferring this liability to someone other than google or facebook.

To me, this is the right attitude towards this. Really? Are you more scared by your own democratic government than by facebook? Besides i'm not even american, so whatever

Well, yeah. I can choose to not use Facebook (for the most part). I can't choose to not use the federal government.

Plus, disliking and being wary of government is quintessentially American—it goes back to our roots as a country.

As an example that just popped into my head, look at DACA: a bunch of undocumented persons told the federal government about their undocumented status (in exchange for something good) and now that information can/will/may be used to deport them.

With the government, it cuts both ways.

Re: Government launches login.gov to simplify access to public services

#57

Post by germanier »

ihattendorf wrote: post #51
TulliusCicero wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is backwards in plenty of ways, honestly, and the government is frequently a good (bad?) example. Moved to Germany a year ago, the government just seems so competent and drama-free here in comparison.

Wasn't it Germany that had the electronic voting machines compromised?

Not a voting machine (we don't have any) but software used to tabulate preliminary results was shown to be vulnerable. Honestly, this is pretty bad but not "voting machines compromised" bad.

Re: Government launches login.gov to simplify access to public services

#58

Post by cyberferret »

Hopefully the US government will do better than the awful AUSKEY system that the Australian Government designed. Every time I upgrade my PC or notebook, I have to download a ton of Java crud, not to mention certificates, in order to be able to use it, and even then I have constant browser issues with particular versions of Java or certificate chains being misconfigured.

Unfortunately, I have to use AUSKEY to transact on my business tax details etc., and just the sheer UX nightmare that it is makes an already detested task even harder to swallow.

Re: Government launches login.gov to simplify access to public services

#59

Post by ProAm »

grepthisab wrote: post #53
ProAm wrote: post #38

I would not trust our government to implement this safely, efficiently or well.

This is a US Digital Service project for 18F. Probably the best engineers in the world working on it.

Arguable, and they are still working within/for the government. I have little to no faith.

Re: Government launches login.gov to simplify access to public services

#60

Post by Joeri »

dragonwriter wrote: post #24
dkhenry wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that was the concern being expressed by the grandparent. If the concern was the government now has a secret trove of all your information this specific product doesn't change anything on that front as it doesn't store your information it just acts as an identity provider. If the concern is exploiting this one account allow an attacker to get at all your government systems, then yes this is a new treasur…

I'm not saying that it's not better net , I’m saying that, insofar as there is an internal or external risk of compromise or abuse, a single government identity provider poses the same kind of risk as a single government profile would provide.

I pity the fool who hacks such a strategic government service. The expression "threw away the key" comes to mind for what might happen to them.
Post reply on HN