Trust is a fragile currency. It is often the first thing to break and the hardest thing to rebuild. When fraud occurs, it drains the “trust bank” of the taxpayer or customer; yet, when heavy-handed, technical security is implemented to prevent fraud, we often inadvertently alienate the very citizens we are trying to protect.
At the Counter Fraud 2026 conference, Hippo’s Liz Whitefield, Jim Small, and Pelin Demir presented a narrative that shifts the focus from “walls” to “relationships.” They argued that the industry’s focus on tech-first “silver bullets” overlooks the fundamental reality: Addressing fraud and building digital trust is not just a technical challenge, but also a human one.
The shift from implicit to explicit trust
For decades, security was built like a fortress. If you had the “key” to the front door (the network perimeter), you were implicitly trusted. But in a world of remote work and digital-first services, that perimeter has dissolved.
The future of counter-fraud lies in Zero Trust. This doesn’t mean we assume everyone is a fraudster; it means we move from implicit trust to explicit verification. By using context-based signals such as time, location, and behavioral patterns – security then becomes a dynamic “control plane” that adapts to the user’s identity in real-time.
Trust is a two-way street
In the context of counter fraud, we often talk about whether the system can trust the user. But digital trust is a two-way street: the user also needs to trust the system.
When security feels intrusive or creates too much friction, users don’t just get frustrated, they often find workarounds. Whether it’s a stressed agent bypassing a complex check or a claimant sharing sensitive documents via insecure channels because the official portal is too hard to use, “human error” is often just a symptom of a trust gap.
True security lives in the gap between technical controls and real human behavior. By using user-centred design (UCD), we can build services that people want to use correctly, turning humans into the strongest link in the security chain.
Trust in action: National-scale impact
This human-centric approach to trust is already delivering results across the UK’s most critical services:
DWP: Responding the challenges in Universal Credit fraud and error
Following a surge in fraud and error during the pandemic, Hippo partnered with the DWP to deliver a new service for citizens and agents.
- The Challenge: Agents were overwhelmed by cognitive load, and claimants lacked a secure way to provide evidence.
- The Solution: We built an end-to-end solution and dashboard for agents and a secure, frictionless document upload tool for claimants.
The Outcome: By designing for the human experience, the work has contributed to DWP stopping over £1 billion in incorrect payments as of May 2025, ensuring that funds reach those who truly need them.
Bridging the adoption gap with NHS Passkeys
The NHS faced a classic digital trust dilemma: how do you get millions of people to adopt Passkeys, a technology they might not yet be familiar with or understand?
- The Strategy: Through inclusive research and behavioral insights, the team navigated user scepticism.
The Result: By focusing on the user experience and the surrounding system, access became 8x faster. Today, the platform supports 5.7 million passkey users, proving that when you build a service people can trust, adoption follows.
The bottom line for 2026 and beyond
Counter fraud is no longer just about “securing the perimeter.” It is an integrated challenge that merges identity management, cyber security, and human-centered design.
As we look ahead, the most successful organisations and services won’t just harness the best tech, they will have the highest level of digital trust. They will secure the person, not the perimeter, and in doing so, they will create services that are as resilient as they are inclusive.
