Hanna Kim, Director of Login.gov, Technology Transformation Services - General Services Administration, United States

1. How do you use technology/policy to improve citizens’ lives? Tell us about your role or  organisation.  

At Login.gov, we want to be the public’s one account for government. As Director, I think it’s a true honor to be part of a team that has the ability to tangibly influence the public’s experience with the government. Every day I am humbled by the true scale of impact our team has:  

• 100M accounts 

• Almost 500 applications across 50 agencies and states 

The opportunity to affect this many people is an amazing privilege and a heavy responsibility that I don’t take lightly.  
 

One quick example: in the wake of devastating wildfires in Maui, we partnered with the Department of Labor and Hawaii to quickly integrate Login.gov in order to help unemployment insurance claimants quickly verify their identity to access critical benefits. This is one of my many stories that makes me so excited to work at Login.

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2. What was the most impactful project you worked on this year? 

Login.gov’s certification for NIST Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2) has been the biggest milestone of 2024. It’s a testament to our team’s dedication to providing secure identity verification pathways, both in-person and remote, while maintaining a seamless user experience. 

IAL2 certification will open doors for partnership with even more federal, state, local, and tribal government agencies and departments who need a world-class digital identity verification and authentication service. 

3. What was one unexpected learning from 2024?  

One unexpected learning from 2024 is how important public-private partnerships are in delivering truly impactful government technology. As we worked to enhance Login.gov, I saw firsthand how collaboration with private sector leaders in the identity space pushed us to think more creatively about how to deliver better outcomes for the public. These partnerships reminded me that innovation doesn’t happen in silos; it happens when we leverage the strengths of both sectors to solve complex problems.

More personally, joining Login.gov earlier this year has re-taught me how deeply I’m motivated by leading and being part of a team united by a shared mission. Whether it was tackling a tough challenge or celebrating milestones like achieving IAL2 certification, I saw how mission-driven work can energize people in ways that go beyond job titles or day-to-day tasks. It reaffirmed that the “why” behind our work—serving the public and making government services more secure and accessible—is what truly fuels me as a leader.  

4. What’s a tool or technique you’re excited to explore in 2025?

Some members of the public want the opportunity to engage with a human during the identity verification process, but aren’t able to visit an in-person proofing location to do so. We have begun exploring options that would enable a user to digitally verify their identity with a human agent, such as a live video chat with a trained identity verification professional. This channel presents interesting challenges, and we are pursuing this path while maintaining the program’s high bar around security and privacy. 

5. Everybody’s talking about AI today – give us your hot take on AI and what it means for the  public sector.

From a Login.gov perspective, the rise of AI means more sophisticated approaches to identity theft which can have significant consequences from money and time lost to impacts on credit and mental health. 

Examples: 

• In 2023, American adults lost a total of $43 billion to identity fraud with victims 80+ 

•  experiencing 3-4 times higher median losses than the 20-49 age group  

• It takes 6+ months and 200 hours to recover from identity theft 

• Fraudulent accounts can take months or years to remove from a credit report and if not 

• caught on time, the victim can be liable for the debt incurred 

• Per ITRC, 87% of victims report feeling anxious or worried, 77% felt violated, and 16% reported feeling suicidal after becoming victims of this crime 

Fraudsters are using their stolen funds to supercharge their AI capabilities, creating a vicious cycle of smarter, more dangerous attacks.  

Login.gov has long included many features that help to prevent fraud (e.g., state-issued ID validation, mandatory multi-factor authentication, phone/address verification). Recently, we added additional features targeting bad actors, bots, and more. 

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6. What are your priorities for 2025?

Login.gov will continue to prioritize providing access to users while preventing fraud from bad actors. Central to our work - and I think the industry's work as a whole - is finding innovative ways to increase user convenience while not lowering our high bar around security, anti-fraud, and privacy. These are the things that our agency partners care about because their users expect to be able to safely and securely access their benefits and services. Users may (or may not) explicitly ask for this, but agencies will hear about it when there’s a problem.  

7. What advice do you have for public sector innovators? 

I would encourage public sector innovators to align their own professional mission with the north star of serving the public. As public servants, we have a different level of accountability than the private sector and that’s why transparency is an important value to us at Login.gov. One of the ways we do this is by sharing our priorities using our public facing program roadmap. You can read more on Digital.gov about why we chose this unique format to solicit agency feedback and transparently showcase the value our partners would receive, such as the types of problems we were solving or could solve, and what types of capabilities they would like to see us explore. We also host quarterly meetings with partner agencies to ensure that they’re making sound investments in Login.gov, and we frequently brief stakeholders on Capitol Hill. 

8. Who inspires you today?

My grandfather inspires me deeply. He came to the United States under political asylum after leading a democracy movement in Korea and dedicated his life fighting for a better future for others. Growing up with his story instilled in me a sense of responsibility to contribute to the public good. It’s why I am so passionate about improving people’s experience with government. Even seemingly small improvements in how people experience government can have a big impact on their trust and engagement with the government. It’s an honor to carry forward his spirit of service in my work every day.