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They built / manage login.gov? Oh boy. It’s one thing if Twitter has bugs. It’s another thing if people have bugs while trying to login or signup to governmen

They built / manage login.gov? Oh boy. It’s one thing if Twitter has bugs. It’s another thing if people have bugs while trying to login or signup to government services. Or hackers finding vulnerabilities and no one to fix them?

daveguy 2y ago
Yeah, it's almost as if Elon doesn't have the country's best interest at heart.
psychlops 2y ago
I don't think so. Many of those sites are routinely down or inaccessible. Eventually, you have to pick up the phone and wait on hold, hoping you don't get disconnected.
dralley 2y ago
> Or hackers finding vulnerabilities and no one to fix them? That's apparently no longer a concern. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-russia-hacking-cyber-security https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-russia... The Trump administration has publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments. ... A recent memo at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) set out new priorities for the agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security and monitors cyber threats against US critical infrastructure. The new directive set out priorities that included China and protecting local systems. It did not mention Russia. A person familiar with the matter who spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity said analysts at the agency were verbally informed that they were not to follow or report on Russian threats, even though this had previously been a main focus for the agency. The person said work that was being done on something “Russia-related” was in effect “nixed”.
gortok 2y ago
login.gov is one of the few government services that as a private sector techie I'm in awe of. They really knocked it out of the park with login.gov, and I can only assume it was politics that had the IRS use ID.me instead of login.gov.
- fragmede 2y ago
  The unfortunate thing is that there isn't this large imposing physical monument that you stand before and are just overwhelmed by its grandeur because of it. Imagine standing at the bottom of the Hoover Dam and looking up. That, but digital.
- atlgator 2y ago
  It could be either or both of two reasons: 1) Login.gov does not have identity verification. It appears like they do because most accounts are created via the Trusted Traveler programs. However, that system belongs to CBP and is not available to other agencies. ID.me has multiple different types of ID verification, including specialty affiliations like military/veterans, first responders, nurses, teachers. 2) ID.me has a larger pre-existing pool of vetted users. This means less new signups for IRS which translates to less help desk calls, etc.
epistasis 2y ago
When I first encountered login.gov several years ago I rolled my eyes and thought, "there's absolutely no way that anybody in the government got all these different organizations to have any sort of effective common logon scheme." Yet, three years later, I'm always amazed that it works effectively as it does across so many systems. The worst offender is probably EFTPS, for doing payroll taxes, that has additional obscure and inscrutable login stuff on top of login.gov, but the login.gov part of it works well for everything science related I do.
afro88 2y ago
According to wikipedia[1] they incubated it, and it has since been run and maintained elsewhere. Same deal with cloud.gov (though that was an 18f prototype) In fact it looks like most of their projects were prototypes, incubations or partnerships with other agencies and departments. Seems like a modern digital agency / consultancy within the govt. I'm not sticking up for the decision to cut them (I think it's a great agency that clearly bore fruit), but this is HN and we should have our facts straight. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/18F#:~:text=Login.gov%2C%20which%20launched%20in%202017 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/18F#:~:text=Login.gov%2C%20w...
- epistasis 2y ago
  Which facts do you believe are not straight?
  - thedufer 2y ago
    I would assume they're pointing at the comment at the top of this thread ("They built / manage login.gov?") rather than the article itself.
    - epistasis 2y ago
      I guess that's why I'm confused, which facts are not straight or were corrected?
      - thedufer 2y ago
        18f built but did not then manage login.gov. It was handed off elsewhere. The implication of them managing it was that disbanding 18f left login.gov ownerless (or at least handed off to some group that knows nothing about it) which does not seem to be the case.
ineedaj0b 2y ago
twitter /the infrastructure web part/ is run sooooo much better post elon. and we get ui updates and feature improvements regularly. that never happened before or took years -user with largish account since 2013
dcow 2y ago
Why does the government need two identity providers? Login dot gov is good, agree. But why do we need two?

daveguy 2y ago

Yeah, it's almost as if Elon doesn't have the country's best interest at heart.

psychlops 2y ago

I don't think so. Many of those sites are routinely down or inaccessible. Eventually, you have to pick up the phone and wait on hold, hoping you don't get disconnected.

dralley 2y ago

> Or hackers finding vulnerabilities and no one to fix them? That's apparently no longer a concern. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-russia-hacking-cyber-security https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-russia... The Trump administration has publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments. ... A recent memo at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) set out new priorities for the agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security and monitors cyber threats against US critical infrastructure. The new directive set out priorities that included China and protecting local systems. It did not mention Russia. A person familiar with the matter who spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity said analysts at the agency were verbally informed that they were not to follow or report on Russian threats, even though this had previously been a main focus for the agency. The person said work that was being done on something “Russia-related” was in effect “nixed”.

gortok 2y ago

login.gov is one of the few government services that as a private sector techie I'm in awe of. They really knocked it out of the park with login.gov, and I can only assume it was politics that had the IRS use ID.me instead of login.gov.

fragmede 2y ago
The unfortunate thing is that there isn't this large imposing physical monument that you stand before and are just overwhelmed by its grandeur because of it. Imagine standing at the bottom of the Hoover Dam and looking up. That, but digital.
atlgator 2y ago
It could be either or both of two reasons: 1) Login.gov does not have identity verification. It appears like they do because most accounts are created via the Trusted Traveler programs. However, that system belongs to CBP and is not available to other agencies. ID.me has multiple different types of ID verification, including specialty affiliations like military/veterans, first responders, nurses, teachers. 2) ID.me has a larger pre-existing pool of vetted users. This means less new signups for IRS which translates to less help desk calls, etc.

epistasis 2y ago

When I first encountered login.gov several years ago I rolled my eyes and thought, "there's absolutely no way that anybody in the government got all these different organizations to have any sort of effective common logon scheme." Yet, three years later, I'm always amazed that it works effectively as it does across so many systems. The worst offender is probably EFTPS, for doing payroll taxes, that has additional obscure and inscrutable login stuff on top of login.gov, but the login.gov part of it works well for everything science related I do.

afro88 2y ago

According to wikipedia[1] they incubated it, and it has since been run and maintained elsewhere. Same deal with cloud.gov (though that was an 18f prototype) In fact it looks like most of their projects were prototypes, incubations or partnerships with other agencies and departments. Seems like a modern digital agency / consultancy within the govt. I'm not sticking up for the decision to cut them (I think it's a great agency that clearly bore fruit), but this is HN and we should have our facts straight. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/18F#:~:text=Login.gov%2C%20which%20launched%20in%202017 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/18F#:~:text=Login.gov%2C%20w...

epistasis 2y ago
Which facts do you believe are not straight?
- thedufer 2y ago
  I would assume they're pointing at the comment at the top of this thread ("They built / manage login.gov?") rather than the article itself.
  - epistasis 2y ago
    I guess that's why I'm confused, which facts are not straight or were corrected?
    - thedufer 2y ago
      18f built but did not then manage login.gov. It was handed off elsewhere. The implication of them managing it was that disbanding 18f left login.gov ownerless (or at least handed off to some group that knows nothing about it) which does not seem to be the case.

ineedaj0b 2y ago

twitter /the infrastructure web part/ is run sooooo much better post elon. and we get ui updates and feature improvements regularly. that never happened before or took years -user with largish account since 2013

dcow 2y ago

Why does the government need two identity providers? Login dot gov is good, agree. But why do we need two?