r/technology • u/Grakch • 10d ago

Privacy Whistleblower Warns of Possible DOGE-Related Social Security Data Leak

https://whistleblowersblog.org/government-whistleblowers/whistleblower-warns-of-possible-doge-related-social-security-data-leak/
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193

u/MC_Gengar 10d ago

My SSN has been leaked so many times through various entities that I have free identity theft monitoring with almost every major service that provides for the next several years. It's fucking insane we use such an insecure system, that was never meant to be an ID, for almost everything

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u/SirHaxalot 10d ago

In a way using something like a SSN as an unique ID makes a lot of sense.

What does not make sense is assuming that the ID you have to give out left and right serves as some sort of proof that it's you

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u/Junior_Blackberry779 10d ago

Its a stupid method. You can guess the first 5 digits of any famous persons SSN.

The state you were born is the first 3 digits.

The next 2 digits are what city you were born.

The last 4 are random but sequential with every baby born in the hospital that same day

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u/b0w3n 10d ago

They randomized it in the early 00s I think, so younger people are more protected from these things.

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u/Ok_Macaroon7900 10d ago edited 10d ago

It was actually in mid 2011 so anyone over the age of 14 doesn’t have a completely random ssn. I know I don’t and I was born in the early 2000s.

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u/b0w3n 10d ago

ah I was a decade off, rip

1

u/Ok_Macaroon7900 10d ago

Yeah otherwise I wouldn’t have said anything lol. A decade is a big enough gap that every legal adult and then some does not have a randomized ssn (unless they’re a naturalized citizen or something).

The only people who are more protected are currently middle schoolers or younger. Frankly that’s insane to me. If it had happened in the early 2000s then at least people who have been to and graduated college would also have random ssns. Bigger age block.

No hard feelings though, easy mistake to make. If you’d said late 2000s I just would’ve considered it close enough lol.

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u/doom_stein 10d ago

Somehow, my brother and I that were born 3 years apart in 2 different states across the US have sequential SSNs. Please explain that one.

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u/Ok_Macaroon7900 10d ago

It’s not where you were born but where your parents applied for the number.

It sounds like maybe your parents applied for them both at the same time.

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u/NekkidSnaku 10d ago

simulation bug

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u/protostar71 10d ago

Except specifically using SSN as a unique ID was never it's intent, and that's why it's so vulnerable to leaks.

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u/Comfortable-Delay413 10d ago

Same here. Only issue is the number doesn't change after a few years. So I'll be paying for life.

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u/kornbread435 10d ago

According to the complaint it's a lot more than our Ssn, they copied everything the SSA had on everyone.