Social Security number vulnerable to fraud? Well, duh
| July 6, 2009 | 5:07 PM
More journal entries from Cindy House »
Another entry from the annals of I Can’t Believe Someone Actually Paid For This Study:
Researchers say that — Gasp! — our Social Security numbers are putting us at risk of fraud. You don’t say.
This time, we’re at risk of fraud and identity theft because those researchers say they’ve been able to figure out a way to predict someone’s SSN based on their date and location of birth. That information is often public, especially with the growing popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook.
Well, duh.
I may not have a fancy statistics degree, but I did spend one summer in college processing work applications for a temp agency. Part of my job was to run every applicant’s SSN through a verification system to make sure it was a valid number. And sure enough, there was a pattern there, with certain number combinations showing up repeatedly along with certain geographic areas.
That was 16 years ago, so I suppose it was really only a matter of time before someone with a fast enough computer and sophisticated enough software cracked the code.
A Social Security Administration spokesman told The New York Times that “the public should not be alarmed by this report because there is no foolproof method for predicting a person’s Social Security number.”
In the next paragraph, the same spokesman says the agency is working on putting in place next year a random system of assigning numbers.
Seems long overdue to me.
fraud, identity theft, social security number
