Slashdot Mirror
OMB Website Exposes Thousands of SSNs
msblack writes "The New York Times is reporting that an Office of Management and Budget website accidentally exposed at least 30,000 social security numbers publicly online. As many as 100,000 to 150,000 individuals may have been affected. The cost to taxpayers just for notifications and credit monitoring is estimated to run $4 million. 'While there was no evidence to indicate whether anyone had in fact used the information improperly, officials at the Agriculture Department and the Census Bureau removed the Social Security numbers from the Census Web site last week. Officials at the Agriculture Department said Social Security numbers were included in the public database because doing so was the common practice years ago when the database was first created, before online identity theft was as well-known a threat as it is today. '"
Here a permanent fix: render SSNs worthless for financial transactions by making it illegal for any entity besides the IRS, SSA, you employer and your bank to ask for a SSN or keep a record of a SSN for any purpose other than tax collection and Social Security. The employer and bank would only be allowed use it for tax reporting purposes. The credit reporting companies, banks, and data brokers might howl, but too bad. They can use other data identifiers, or even better, learn to personally know their customers beyond a mechanically created credit score tied to a SSN.
A "semi-secret" ID number is a bad tool for ID. You don't need to be an expert in cryptography to realize that a password sent around is plain-text is bogus.
The deeper issue is why identity theft is my problem. Shouldn't the credit agencies etc. be very very liable for loaning money to someone who is not me? It seems like they are part of the fraud whether they were willing participants or not. I should be able to collect damages when their negligent checking of my identity harms my credit score. Identity theft is a con job, where the perp convinces Visa (or whoever) that they are me. Usually, when cons happen, BOTH the conman and the victim are liable for damage caused. Suppose I conned you into thinking I was a cop and told you to drive me around while I robbed banks. You would still be accessory to my crime even if you claimed you didn't know better. Visa wants to (and currently is) claiming that they are not accessory to the theft of my credit score. That's not right.
The SSN is just a proxy for the fact that there are different standards for people citizens and corporate citizens.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
My SSN is 427347246. This is not a secret. Everyone I have ever worked for knows this. Everyone who has ever drug screened me for employment. Everywhere that has ever had to tell the IRS about my gambling winnings. Half a dozen real estate agents. Over a dozen banks, and over a thousand bank employees. Anyone in earshot every time I have ever called my bank. Broward County got it right, publish them all, expose the farce that is SSN secrecy.
What is disturbing to me is not that these SSNs were exposed, but that they were simply included in "other" databases to begin with. We were told that our SSNs would be limited only to those entities that had a legitimate reason to NEED it. The fact that they were included as a matter of common practice belies this claim. The reference to "before identity theft was a problem" is unadulterated crap. Identity theft has been a problem since biblical times (Jacob and Esau)! The reference to it is a red herring.
What should have been happening is that SSNs should not simply be included in various databases. They should have been following the rules that we were told they were. Whether or not that was successful, they should have had policies and processes for vetting the database for privacy issues prior to dumping it online. Federal privacy laws predate the Internet. The basic notion of checking your data for data that should not be publicly available predates the Internet.
IMO this is similar to the claim that "nobody imagined using airplanes as missiles before 9/11". The problem of Identity Theft existed, was well documented, and alone should have given them reason to examine their DB first. The basic laws on privacy should have. And failing that common sense should have. This is a failure on many grounds.
My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
I would have thought that silly Ponzi scheme discredited decades ago.
Fuck Slashdot
"Hell, even a bank account with 1% interest would give you a better return than social security,"
Not if you get disabled at 25 and you draw social security benefits for the rest of your life.
Social Security is an insurance program. If we got rid of it, we would have destitute old people living out on the streets, like they did during the depression. If that's the society you want to live in, fine. I don't want to see that one bit.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
The problem has been decades of Democratic and Republican Congresses skimnming surplus money off the SS trust fund to cover their budgetary problems.
Remember how part of Al Gore's 2000 Presidential campaign was to put Social Security funds into a "lock box"? Even then it was too late to 'save' SS.
Maybe if Clinton had actually locked up SS funds at the beginning of his Presidency, the system would be solvent for the long run (>50 years).
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!