1Kosmos has received Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense) Impact Level 4 authorization for its identity proofing and passwordless authentication platform, extending the company’s existing FedRAMP High Authority to Operate to cover mission-critical defense workloads.
IL4 authorization is required for systems handling Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) at the Defense Department level, and is a prerequisite for supporting active-duty personnel, civilian staff, contractors, and mission partners who access sensitive systems across distributed or remote environments. With the authorization, 1Kosmos says it becomes the only Kantara-certified credential service provider to hold both FedRAMP High and IL4 authorization in a unified digital identity platform.
“Adversaries are increasingly targeting military identities as the weakest link through phishing, social engineering, and AI-driven impersonation,” said Fadi Jarrar, Vice President of Public Sector at 1Kosmos. “By binding access to a verified, real person, the DoW can reduce that risk while improving access for warfighters, contractors, and mission personnel worldwide.”
The 1Kosmos platform addresses identity challenges across a range of defense scenarios: secure onboarding of contractors and mission partners in remote environments, account recovery and service desk workflows designed to resist social engineering, identity assurance for field operations where traditional CAC/PIV authentication is unavailable, and cross-agency access for coalition partners without requiring duplicated identity infrastructure.
The company highlights that modern military operations increasingly rely on a distributed workforce accessing systems from shared environments or across disconnected networks, which increases exposure to identity-based attacks. Recent phishing campaigns and AI-generated social engineering attacks targeting defense contractors have demonstrated that credential compromise remains an effective path for adversaries seeking access to sensitive government systems.
The IL4-authorized platform is available immediately to Department of War components, military services, defense agencies, and approved mission partners through existing federal procurement channels and cloud marketplaces. IL4 sits above the FedRAMP High baseline and is specifically designed for workloads involving sensitive but unclassified defense data that requires additional protection against nation-state threats.
1Kosmos previously earned FedRAMP High authorization for its platform in mid-2025, and has since added the ServiceNow integration for help desk identity verification. The company is headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey, and has raised more than $72 million in venture capital funding.
Sources: GlobeNewswire
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By Ji-seo Kim
