Re: Last 4 digits of SSN and birthdate

[Dewitt Latimer <dewitt () ND EDU>]

Why not print a bar code on the pledge card (keyed to the appropriate DB
index) and retrofit the data entry stations with scanners.

It's pretty easy and cheap to implement these days.

-d


-----Original Message-----
From: Valdis Kletnieks [mailto:Valdis.Kletnieks () VT EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 1:46 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Last 4 digits of SSN and birthdate

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 12:49:31 CDT, Elizabeth Shannon said:
> A representative of University Advancement contacted me and wanted to
> know if printing a person's birthday (MM/DD/YYYY) and the last 4 digits
> of the person's SSN on pledge cards was acceptable.

Printing the last 4 digits isn't a good idea, because in the context of
a university, the first 5 digits are often easy to guess based on the state
and the year the person was born.  So for instance, our incoming freshmen
there's a very good chance that the first 3 digits are 223- through 231-
if the SSN was issued in Virginia.

The second 2 digits are a 'group number', and with some sleuthing you can
find what likely group numbers in a given year in a given state were being
issued.

More info at: http://members.tripod.com/%7Egene_pool/3invssn2.htm