Jane Edwards
Haywood Talcove, CEO of the government business at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said money lost to fraud represents taxpayer dollars that are being directed to domestic and foreign cybercriminal groups and the U.S. government should act now by adopting best practices and technologies the private sector implements to counter fraud in the public sector.
“It is imperative that we understand the opportunity cost of these losses and humanize the impact they have,” Talcove, a three-time Wash100 awardee, wrote in an opinion piece published Wednesday on The Hill.
He urged Congress to conduct investigations into the plundering of government benefits by these cybercriminals and fraudsters and highlighted the need for technologies to help detect and stop fraud.
“We need technology in place to detect fraud and more technology in place to stop it. This means AI, behavioral biometrics, multi-factor authentication and every core technology that banks use to keep their systems secure,” Talcove noted.
He said the government should consider as a national emergency the widespread fraud across government programs, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid and unemployment insurance.
“Our government deals with a lot more money than any single bank — yet apparently puts forth a fraction of the effort to safeguard it. It’s time to treat this as a national emergency, because it is,” Talcove stressed.
