Safeguarding data integrity and trust in artificial intelligence-augmented government financial ecosystems

This chapter presents a cybersecurity protocol relevant to AI-enhanced government financial services, particularly governmental payment services such as disbursing social welfare payments, public sector payrolls, or stimulating the economy with rebate payments dispersed to taxpayers. This paper posits that an AI-enhanced government financial service environment must prioritize cybersecurity against external and internal adversarial threats. The need for a cybersecurity protocol supporting data integrity and user trust in modern public finance threatens the ability and authority of governments to ensure or regulate the use of such advanced systems. Data management risks leading to the deterioration of government fiscal capabilities and authorities highlight the need for a tailored data operations protocol. As governments delegate the task of delivering public service robustly during naturally occurring crisis events, natural disasters, market failures, pandemics, or war, to the broader market, a trusted data operations system using AI-enabled systems to create government services must be protected against data integrity and trust risks.

This research paper investigates possible supervisory measures and protections that existing frameworks establish for enabling a government to safeguard the integrity, security, and trust of data operation systems in peace or crisis times. To achieve this goal, the paper presents an overview of the relevant financial services – along with the encompassed threats to data integrity, systems security, and stakeholder trust – that AI technology could enhance. The objective is to show that no data integrity and security roadmap enhances the trust of all stakeholders in the AI-augmented ecosystem. Section 1.1 introduces the financial landscape likely enhanced by AI technology and discusses the emerging threats that AI poses to the integrity of existing financial transactional flows. Section 2 analyzes the governance framework enforcing the protection of current government services. Section 3 proposes a tailored mechanism made for an AI-augmented transaction service ecosystem, while Section 4 concludes.