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47 Comments
- katana0182, on 07/06/2009, -0/+50There should be a law forbidding SSNs from being used for any purposes but payroll and tax reporting, Medicare, and Social Security. The law should be that if you even deliberately ask anyone for a SSN for any other reason, you get a large fine. Maybe even an all expenses paid trip to Club Fed, if it's repeated. That would cut down on this identity theft nonsense.
Social Security Numbers would be just fine if they were used for their purpose - and not as some sort of quasi - national identification number. Other government agencies can each use a random ID number. The private sector - well - they can just use whatever they come up with, lol. - hpodity, on 07/07/2009, -0/+33Good thing this was kept secret and not put on the internet where people with math and computer science degrees who need to pay off student loans could find this, and good thing they didn't mention the source they used for this information was publicly available, because that would be dangerous!
- pak314, on 07/07/2009, -0/+30The real problem is that the SSN should not be used as both a username and a password.
- MichaelCorleone, on 07/06/2009, -5/+31Just another reason to end this ponzi scheme.
- jhonsun, on 07/07/2009, -3/+20Just thinking out loud but could the "news" of an SSN crack be a political set-up to introduce the "need" for a new, tougher-to-break-but-more-intrusive national ID to take it's place?
- thegamingguy, on 07/06/2009, -1/+13"Death Master File" woah
- sodoh, on 07/07/2009, -0/+11In America there is a law detailing such that. However no one bothers with it. Either they are not aware of it or don't care. But it isn't the Government to blame.
When I lived in US, my first experience of it was trying to buy a DVD player where the woman behind the counter asked me for it. I told her that legally she isn't allowed to ask me that. So she didn't fill it in and I still got the item.
Second time was the phone company. Again I told the person the same thing. They went to get a manager who came on and just put in random numbers as my SS number.
From what I can guess is it is purely to track you from a marketing purposes. Likewise with zip code. Unless it is a guarantee that you needed my address you shouldn't be entitled to have my zip code to make a purchase. Yet I got that every single time as well. I would just give random zip codes that I knew of.
Ireland is a lot stricter. Not only is my SS number not to be used for general reasons, but companies can be charged/fined for requesting it without approval to do so. - LiquidSpark, on 07/06/2009, -2/+11Did you RTFA? This isn't exactly a brute-force attack. There's a little more to it.
- chogie, on 07/07/2009, -0/+8Good for you.
- nymphetamine, on 07/07/2009, -1/+9ZOMG! NEW WORLD ORDER?!?!?
- TheFuzzyOne, on 07/07/2009, -0/+8Notice how this was posted 9 hours before your comment?
- insomniacal, on 07/07/2009, -2/+9Our credit system is beyond whacked.
- duzytata, on 07/07/2009, -0/+6When i punch in at work, I use my social security number. I don't like that one bit.
- TomKWS, on 07/07/2009, -0/+5"Security through obscurity" has been proven to be ineffective.
- kanojo1969, on 07/07/2009, -0/+5In Australia we don't have anything like an SSN and it doesn't seem to hamper our ability to identify ourselves. Just do away with the whole system, you don't need it, and it can only be used against you.
- Pinkertinkle, on 07/07/2009, -1/+5That's some fancy stuff, thanks for making it public Proceedings of the National Academy!
- JYoungest1, on 07/07/2009, -0/+4They tell us not to give it out unless necessary but you have to give it out do anything anymore...
Welcome to Starbucks, can I get your SSN? - yocouchdigga, on 07/07/2009, -0/+4sounds like something the Grim Reaper of The Year would get after x number of years working the circuit.
- ventaur, on 07/07/2009, -0/+3And yet, the last 4 digits are the only 4 shown when systems attempt to mask your SSN for display.
- smacksaw, on 07/07/2009, -0/+3I worked a contract for the SSA for awhile and the oldest employees could tell your date and place of birth most of the time by your SSN.
- obliviousfool, on 07/07/2009, -0/+3I don't know why you are getting dugg down. My brother and sister and I have identical SSNs except for the last 4 digits. Same podunk town, same hospital, but only a few years apart. Hence, I've always known that SSNs were a very "crackable" code.
- STPZ, on 07/07/2009, -1/+4Well thats just prime
- 3The3Dude3, on 07/07/2009, -1/+3***** it. I don't know about you guys but I don't know how to count yen anyway.
- staticfire, on 07/08/2009, -0/+2And I guess mandatory implantation of computer chips in people cant be too far away either.
I would be really be shocked if society went another 100 years with out someone trying to seriously implement this for financial/safety/some other ***** reasons.
I hope if/when they eventually try do something like this people actually take a stand and fight it.
But like everything else the Government will somehow convince the retards they need this and to vote away their freedoms. - drsolace, on 07/07/2009, -0/+2Figure of speech? Really? I didn't realise that when comments are posted on digg, you must take everything people say literally. In fact, you've totally rocked for being oblivious to the fact he's alluding to the SSN being a scam.
Either that, or you're a moron. - robbob, on 07/07/2009, -0/+2Idiocracy is catching up at last.
Doctors offices always ask for my SSN and I refuse to give it out.
I ask "why, are you hiring?" and they don't insist most often
Medical Insurance companies used to use the SSN as your client # and I'm sure many still do.
Now the only companies that "need" SSNs are banks, understood, and cell/satellite companies (unwarrented) - KMye, on 07/07/2009, -0/+2First half sounded good, and then it turns into trolling...what?
- BREZZZ, on 07/06/2009, -6/+7Only the last 4 numbers are serial numbers. The middle 2 represent a variety of things like hospital you were born in, year you applied, the district you applied in, or whatever, and the first 3 represent the state you applied in.
- harrisbradley, on 07/07/2009, -1/+2signs of the end of days can be extrapolated from Moby Dick
- Backstab, on 07/07/2009, -0/+1Anything can be extrapolated from anything else.
- tedc, on 07/07/2009, -0/+1Darn. I was counting on that as the last, best defence for my Canadian Social Insurance Number...
- bgberto, on 07/07/2009, -0/+1I like the idea, the whole thing seems kinda risky! Combining public data, knowing what state an individual is from, 'Death Master File!' Those egg heads seem like they might be onto something.
- Nothlit, on 07/07/2009, -0/+1It's not solely for marketing purposes. It's also used to associate you with your credit history. When applying for any type of utility account that requires regular recurring payment (especially post-paid), most providers want to make sure you're not going to be a risky customer, so they look at your credit history to see if you have typically paid your previous accounts on time and in full.
- inactive, on 07/07/2009, -1/+2That's why we all need RF collars. Perhaps an anal probe to buy a slurpy is in order at this point. ***** fingerprinting people...I want to be able whip my thing out on the counter and know my cash is secure. It`s called dickprinting technology....learn up!
- contentpig, on 07/07/2009, -1/+1With their Castanza wallets! Also I guess the RF chips don't HAVE to be imbedded. They could be worn voluntarily. That way if you wanted to attend a protest rally or rape somebody you wouldn't have to worry about Big Brother mucking about in your affairs.
- inactive, on 07/07/2009, -0/+0sure, they will make everyone happy by protecting their SS#'s... just as soon as they transfer everyone's drivers license into a permanent national ID number....
- inactive, on 07/24/2009, -0/+0Anothercanadian
Plz change your sn to
Anothercanadianfaggot - kanojo1969, on 07/08/2009, -0/+0I know what you're saying, but 'ponzi scheme' is not yet a general term meaning 'scam'. The word for that is 'scam'. it's less typing anyway. Ponzi as always referred to a specific type of scam, even moreso now that bernie has made it a household word.
Moron. - enantiodromia, on 07/07/2009, -3/+2$20 says you're a security noob
- Nothlit, on 07/07/2009, -2/+1"No."
- kanojo1969, on 07/07/2009, -2/+0Ponzi scheme? Really? I didn't realise that when you applied for a SSN, your details are used to pay back people who had applied for SSN's in previous years. In fact, you've totally rocked my obviously flawed grasp of what a SSN is for.
Either that, or you're a moron. - kanojo1969, on 07/07/2009, -2/+0Chances that criminals don't already know this anyway? Zero.
The only way to fix this is to make it widely known. - sullipod, on 07/07/2009, -4/+2i know the first 2 numbers are that in houston tx its 45
- contentpig, on 07/07/2009, -5/+2I've always hoped somebody would publish everybody's social security numbers on the net. It would force business, healthcare, & government to immediately cease and desist using them for identification & authentication. I suspect this will eventually happen anyways, especially with so many of those said organizations not protecting the information. Just google "Chronology of Data Breaches" seems silly to continue this trend. As of the last census (2008) there were 304,059,724 people in the United States. What would that be like a 6mb zip file for everyone's names and SSNs? Text compresses very well! I don't want to have anything to do with it becase I don't want to go to jail but I wish somebody would post it all. We should have been using biometrics and imbedded RF chips like 10 years ago already. How cool would it be if you could get rid of all those swipe cards, access cards, ATM/debit cards etc. And move to a safer easier and streamlined 3 factor authentication: Something you have(imbedded RF chip), something you know (PIN code), something you are (thumbprint). I say let all those opposed to imbedded RF chips in people stand in the slow lines.
- tuxthepenguin, on 07/07/2009, -7/+3Unfortunately SSNs are the only TRUE unique identifier for identifying people. This is why people like to use it for non payroll, taxes, medicare, etc.
- CreateTheFuture, on 07/06/2009, -20/+3In related news, brute force attacks can work, given sufficient time.
Buried.
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