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Every American's Social Security number, address may have been stolen in hack (www.fox5dc.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Take your social security number. Change the last number by one. Congrats, you have stolen someones number.

It isn't secure or random in any way. Infact, by doing the above you will have the number of a person born probably in the same hospital as you.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Isn't it the address being leaked with it that makes this notable?

You can't add a number to a SSN and also add a number to the street address to then narrow down which full names are associated with that SSN to then possibly be able to use it.

I didn't think the number had any use on its own

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The address does make it a lot more useful, but the point that I am making is simply that the number itself has never been secure, and this kinda failure was inevitable due to only needing slightly more info than the number itself. A number which itself is already partially identifying.

We shouldn't use social security numbers like we do.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

I mean it says right on the fucking card not to .

But some institutions insist.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Sure it shouldn't be used like this. But incrementing a number isn't enough to steal someone's identity.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Is usa numbering just incremental? Canadian ones use a checksum type setup to determine if it is a valid SIN

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

There's some brackets based on area and similar https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/geocard.html

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

First 3 digits are the area number assigned to a geographic. Next 2 are a group number and are not used serially but have a rather unusual usage sequence. The last 4 are a serial number assigned in order.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's not true anymore. My kids have very different SSNs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Are your kids twins?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

No, but born in the same city. They don't have a common prefix or anything like that.