Social Security Numbering System Vulnerable to Fraud, Researchers Say

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/us/07numbers.html?_r=1

Social Security Numbering System Vulnerable to Fraud, Researchers Say
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: July 6, 2009

The nations Social Security numbering scheme has left millions of citizens 
vulnerable to privacy breaches, according to researchers at Carnegie 
Mellon University, who for the first time have used statistical techniques 
to predict Social Security numbers solely from an individuals date and 
location of birth.

The findings, published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy 
of Sciences, are further evidence that privacy safeguards created in the 
era before powerful computers and ubiquitous networks are increasingly 
failing, setting up an architecture of vulnerability around personal 
digital information, the researchers said.

The researchers, Alessandro Acquisti, an associate professor of 
information technology and public policy, and Ralph Gross, a postdoctoral 
researcher, noted that there were a range of implications from the 
research, including that it was now possible to routinely reconstruct 
sensitive personal information from the type of online postings frequently 
found on social networking sites and other public sources.

[..]
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