The Government Digital Service has awarded a three year contract to specialist firm Synectics, which will support departments’ new login infrastructure with tools to detect possible fraud and manage cases

The Government Digital Service has signed a £10m contract for the provision of technology intended to help detect, prevent and manage fraud committed via GOV.UK One Login.

On 7 November the Cabinet Office-based digital unit entered into a three-year agreement with specialist supplier Synectics Solutions. The firm will provide GDS with its SIRA product which, according to its listing on GOV.UK, represents “a fully hosted fraud prevention solution offering the ability to leverage multi-sector adverse data to help reduce loss ratios and enhance the positive customer journey [which] features sophisticated workflow management, machine learning algorithms and a highly configurable rules-based decision engine”.

According to the text of the contract, the technology will form the basis of a “integrated fraud risk engine and case-management system solution that will help detect and combat fraudulent activity” related to One Login – the new unified login system through which citizens will, ultimately, access all government services delivered across departments.

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About 2.5 million citizens have currently registered for the new system. This figure is projected to rise to as high as 30 million by the end of 2024, with sign-ups driven by the adoption of the technology by major departments including HM Revenue and Customs.

The anti-fraud technology that will support One Login offers “detection of false application details [and] highlighting of proven and suspected fraudulent entities”, according to the SIRA product listing. It also provides “real-time analysis of single customers” within half a second, as well as analysis of groups of up to 5,000 applications to detect trends of larger-scale orchestrated fraud.

The software, which is hosted in a private cloud environment, draws on intelligence from “the largest syndicated database of cross-sector customer risk intelligence in the UK, [with] over 160 members contributing more than 300 million records”, according to Synectics Solutions.

GDS’s deal with the firm is valued at £8.65m plus VAT – equating to about £10.4m in total.