Government agencies have commonly relied on in-person credentialing and verification to secure access to federal facilities and classified systems. This legacy method for achieving Identity Assurance Level 3 (IAL3) is static and will ultimately give way to dynamic, real-time verification.
Traditionally, employees and contractors are required to travel to specific sites or military bases, which is often a cumbersome and unpleasant experience. More importantly, relying exclusively on verification at a few central sites provides limited security benefits over modern kit-based verification at the person's office or home and, if over-trusted, can actually serve as an easier attack vector for sophisticated threat actors.
Trust Swiftly enables agencies to move from static, physical checks to a robust, decentralized, continuous identity verification model. Here are 11 key reasons IAL3 sessions at the office or home, with no travel, are vital for national security, business continuity, and identity governance.
1. Closing the Gap on In-Person Vulnerabilities
A common misconception is that physical presence guarantees identity. In reality, threat actors have long exploited in-person requirements by deploying proxy employees or utilizing social engineering to bypass the system. If an agency only conducts an IAL3 check once, it creates a "one-and-done" vulnerability. A bad actor could potentially fly in for a single day on a private jet just to be verified and badged, only to return home and never set foot in a facility again while retaining access. Using a dedicated, centrally managed kit-based process secures consistent quality and auditability throughout all facilities, tying an identity to a continuously verified physical address and closing the loopholes left by legacy tricks.
2. Continuous Location Verification for Cybersecurity Governance
In a modernized identity and cybersecurity governance program, verifying an employee's actual remote location is paramount. A secure IAL3 process at the employee's approved home office enables agencies to continuously link a user's identity to their physical workspace. For example, a remote authenticator should consistently verify an employee's presence from their approved home location throughout their employment. All deviations—unless an official move request is approved—can immediately trigger security alerts, providing a layer of protection that static in-person badging cannot.
3. Protecting Personnel from Physical Profiling
Using centralized IAL3 physical locations creates major privacy and operational security risks. Consolidating identity proofing at a few sites makes it easier for adversaries to profile, track, and identify key personnel. With today's methods for tracking individuals, a decentralized, kit-based verification structure reduces exposure, protecting workforce privacy and sensitive projects.
4. Upholding Strict Timeboxing and Eliminating Delay Tactics
Physical verification intrinsically limits an agency's ability to "timebox" the credentialing process. Threat actors commonly rely on delays—inventing excuses to extend deadlines—because they require time to receive instructions or devise bypass techniques. When agencies rely solely on in-person checks, logistical delays are often accommodated. Shipping an IAL3 Kit to the person eliminates these excuses. By working in conjunction with in-person checks, no-travel federal identity proofing imposes rigid timelines. Agencies no longer need to make exceptions; if a verification is not completed within the timebox, the account is quarantined immediately.
5. Ensuring Operational Durability
Having only one method of verification creates a system-wide security risk, especially during time-sensitive and critical access checks. There are many valid scenarios in which employees or contractors are legitimately unable to travel to a specific location—whether due to natural disasters, widespread power outages, base lockdowns, or other localized threats. A flexible, kit-based verification framework ensures that your agency's operations do not grind to a halt during a crisis, allowing critical personnel to be securely vetted regardless of physical disruptions.
6. Layered Security: No-Travel IAL3 as the First Line of Defense
Security is most effective when layered. By requiring an IAL3 check on a controlled kit at the person's office or home before they are ever invited to a facility for an in-person follow-up, agencies implement a powerful defense-in-depth strategy. This pipeline weeds out threat actors early in the process. Allowing unvetted actors to approach a secure facility for initial credentialing can expose agencies to proximity-based attacks, where merely being near the facility or its local network is enough to compromise a system. Kit-based verification acts as an initial filter, drastically reducing physical security risks.
7. Direct Alignment with Federal Zero Trust Mandates (ZTA)
Following federal mandates, such as Executive Order 14028, agencies must adopt a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA), a security model in which no user or device is trusted by default and verification is required for every access request. The phrase "identity is the new perimeter" means that verifying user identity is more important than relying on physical security controls. Trust must never be assumed simply because someone possesses a physical badge or is inside a government building. Identity Assurance Level 3 (IAL3) verification—the highest level of identity proofing, completed on a controlled kit with a trained agent attending—supported by continuous authentication and dynamic risk signals, which are ongoing processes to monitor and assess user risk, natively integrates with Zero Trust frameworks. It ensures identity is continuously verified at the digital level, making solutions like Trust Swiftly a direct enabler of federal compliance.
8. Superior Fraud Detection: Advanced Digital Forensics vs. Human Fallibility
Verification at a central site relies heavily on one guard's ability to spot a fake ID or an imposter. Humans suffer from fatigue and bias and cannot detect highly sophisticated counterfeit documents or synthetic identities with the naked eye. A kit-based IAL3 session pairs the trained proofing agent with multi-layered forensics that a guard alone cannot replicate: chip reads, passive liveness detection, deepfake mitigation and pixel-level document analysis on Trust Swiftly-controlled hardware.
9. Accelerating Mission Readiness and Time-to-Productivity
The government onboarding process is notoriously slow. Waiting weeks or months for an available in-person appointment at an overloaded credentialing facility delays critical projects. Kit-based verification drastically reduces onboarding bottlenecks. Once the kit arrives, contractors and federal employees complete an attended session in minutes from their office or home rather than waiting for a slot at a physical badging center. This accelerated "Time-to-Productivity" ensures that agencies can deploy talent to critical missions immediately.
10. Cost Reduction and Resource Streamlining
Operating physical credentialing sites is incredibly expensive. It requires leasing secure real estate, maintaining specialized hardware, paying dedicated administrative staff, and covering travel expenses for employees who need verification. Kit-based verification shifts the burden from costly physical infrastructure to a highly scalable digital platform. Taxpayer dollars and agency budgets are optimized by reducing travel expenditures and repurposing security personnel to critical threat-hunting roles rather than routine administrative checks.
11. Geographic Accessibility and Equity
Government initiatives require tapping high-caliber talent nationwide, not just those living near major federal hubs. Requiring in-person verification creates an unnecessary barrier for individuals in rural locations, distant military bases, or those with mobility disabilities. IAL3 credentialing without travel broadens access to government employment and contracting. Highly skilled experts anywhere in the country can be securely vetted and onboarded without logistical nightmares.
The Trust Swiftly Advantage
The future of government credentialing is dynamic, distributed, and continuous. Sole reliance on physical badging creates vulnerability and operational delays. Trust Swiftly helps agencies modernize IAL3 sessions, delivering a scalable, secure, easy-to-use platform for verifying identity at the office or home, without travel.
Ready to modernize your agency's credentialing process? Contact Trust Swiftly today to learn how our no-travel IAL3 verification can strengthen your security posture, ensure compliance, and improve operations.