According to a protected disclosure filed with the Office of Special Counsel, Borges told the Government Accountability Project that DOGE officials working at Social Security created a “live copy” of the country’s Social Security records in a separate cloud environment that sidestepped usual security checks.
The group says those lapses put the Social Security information of more than 300 million Americans at risk.
What a perfect time to stop using social security numbers for specifically the thing they were not designed to be.
Except the dumfucks have railed against the idea of a national id number since before they removed “Not to be used for ID” from the SS cards. So instead we have a national id number that was never meant to be one and stupidly easy to figure out.
You know, I almost posted that it specifically says on the back “Not to be used for ID”, because I remember that on mine. Looked online to be sure I was right, and couldn’t find it, so I didn’t post it
I had no idea that they removed that. It’s not like they changed function!
They did start randomizing the numbers though, so the first 3 aren’t based off of the area you were born.
All U.S. Social Security numbers may need to be changed
Yeah, sure, and winged monkeys may fly out of my ass. But I doubt it’ll happen.
Yeah, honestly they have needed to be changed for years now, what with all the data breaches and stuff… Pretty sure everyone’s info was leaked ages ago. Nothing has been done because this is how the people in charge want it.
We’re the unwashed masses. Changing our social security numbers would mean considering us people worth more than a means of exploitation, and the ruling class couldn’t possibly burden themselves with the mere thought.
Yeah, thanks for that Equifax.
they dont want to spend the effor to do it unfortunately
For sure. They were fine invalidating mine and everybody else’s Puerto Rican birth certificate but they’ll never put this sort of administrative burden in action.
It would have happened after Experian if it was ever possible for it to happen.
EDIT: I was thinking of Equifax but Experian is not clean either
it was equifax, and it was quickly swept under the rug, conveniently around the time trumps 1st tax cuts occured.
Wait, Experian or Equifax?
Cripes, did I miss another one?
Oh you’re right. You didn’t miss another one, I lost another brain cell.
It was both within the last 5 years, and transunion recently. They all gave free monitoring for those affected.
They actually need to publicly release everyone’s SSNs so that they can’t be used for authentication anymore, which they never should have been
I’ve been saying this for literal years now. They should release a publicly searchable database of every single SSN, name, and DOB. Force organizations to stop using those as a form of ID, because they’re not secure and never have been.
Give it like a year of lead time. Like announce “March 1 2027, we’ll post the database” and then that gives institutions a full year to figure something new out.
Why not photos too? jfc.
And your mother’s maiden name
SSNs are generally considered public information but how the SSN is linked to other information is usually the more difficult bit to find and it’s generally pay-walled. (Any jackass with a business license and a credit card can usually buy background check information for ‘hiring’.)
But no, it shouldn’t be solely used for authentication. That is just dumb. However, it can be used as part of a larger verification and validation scheme while building authentication/authorization profiles. In most systems that I have seen that use full or partial SSNs, it is always linked to several other identifiers that need to match.
They are definitely not. People consider it increased risk for identity theft if they hear their SSN was stolen and you just cited how people are still using them in part for authentication. They need to be completely useless for authentication
I am making a slightly different point and have a bias to this perspective: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/SD/19230.pdf
I am saying that an SSN can be part of a larger validation scheme, not the only key to the castle. Specifically for government sites, SSNs can be linked to IRS data to verify places of last residence. A person generally needs to verify multiple items that are referenced by the SSN before basic authentication can be established and set by the user. (This is part of the full Authentication, Authorization and Access Control triad.)
An SSN is just a broad level identifier. If you look at many laws around the release of SSNs, the redaction is usually in place to prevent the linking of different documents and other data points.
If I released my SSN in this chat, I could be fully doxxed in a matter of seconds. It’s mainly because there are many legal systems in place that use an SSN as a primary key, of sorts. (It’s a bit more than that, as SSNs can be duplicated in some circumstances.)
So to say, at a high level, an SSN is considered private is absolutely correct. However, it’s so easily referenced and obtainable it really isn’t fully private either.
If I was to generate a full list of every possible SSN in the US (which I have done, multiple times), that list is effectively useless to anyone who obtains a copy of it. So, by itself, an SSN is effectively public.
If I released my SSN in this chat, I could be fully doxxed in a matter of seconds.
000-00-0002
000, 666 and 900-999 are invalid area numbers and any digit group of all zeros is also invalid. Thanks for playing!
Borges alleges that a little-known federal tech team called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, copied the government’s master Social Security database into a cloud system that lacked normal oversight.
I don’t know if I’d call them a little-known team (they’re infamous for basically fraud), but point taken.
Regardless of whether or not they are breached, the social security numbering system needs to be changed because it is far from a secure number.
Let me guess… just in time for a 2028 election where we all suddenly need our valid SSN?
The Trump administration is building a computer system so that States can ‘verify’ a person’s citizenship prior to allowing them to vote.
This system has failed in many, many ways. That makes me think that they would use the SSN database and other intelligence sources in order to setup the system to fail at a much higher rate for everyone but likely MAGA voters.
This is a conspiracy I can get behind!
This is a conspiracy I can get behind!
Oh yeah this part is 100% my personal inference:
That makes me think that they would use the SSN database and other intelligence sources in order to setup the system to fail at a much higher rate for everyone but likely MAGA voters.
It isn’t completely baseless, the DHS has created a tool called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE. The push on the right is to make it so that everyone has to prove their citizenship in order to vote. So a system like this SAVE system is what they would want to put in place to make it easy to ‘verify citizenship’ at polling places.
Having an electronic tool who’s underlying system is a complete black box and exclusively controlled by the executive branch which has been shown to incorrectly identify people’s citizenship status would allow a group acting in bad faith to surreptitiously introduce ‘errors’ that affect voters who have been identified (by the domestic spy network that is Google and Co.) as being likely opposition voters.
I’m not saying that this is what IS happening. I’m saying that this system is exactly the kind of system that you would design if you were trying to do what I’m suggesting.
Here’s a source about the system, because you shouldn’t just trust ‘people’ on the Internet:
https://www.propublica.org/article/save-voter-citizenship-tool-mistakes-confusion
more than 300 million Americans
Last I checked, that’s all of 'em
Thanks a lot DOGE. So clearly Elon Musk gives every American compensation, we get new numbers and have all of our credit history wiped clean to start new right? Bc otherwise this just means we’ve all been massively fucked by Trump and his band of idiots
His wealth spread across everyone living in the U.S. is ~ $2500 a person
Not adult, not citizen, not household,…
Person
I could use an extra $2500.
Life in prison would be nice too. Fuck him and his ketamine bender
I feel like he would just buy his luxury in prison like Pablo Escobar.
I think the worst punishment for people like Thiel and Musk would be to have their assets seized and any future wages garnished to be paid to the victims of their crimes, while they’re forced to attempt to survive in the society they’ve helped create.
The consequences they face will serve as an example and deterrent for others like them and one of two things would happen. Billionaires suddenly experience empathy/gain a conscience and conditions improve for all of society, or, billionaires continue to maintain the conditions they’ve created while one by one falling victim to their own creations. Most likely they check themselves out very quickly rather than attempt to survive the nightmare they had no problems inflicting on others. Either way equals a net gain for society.
Totally. I meant life in prison in addition to having all of their assets seized. They deserve to rot.
I fucking CALLED IT.
I’ve been getting so many loan applications since they opened pandoras box last year. never had this problem. I even just got an alert my SSN has been found on the darknet.
take my advice, freeze your credit report at all three major credit firms NOW. don’t wait, takes an hour for all three all online. doesn’t matter of you’re 9 or 90, do it do it do it.
Also - create an irs profile and check to require a password to file taxes. And also create ssa profile and check the data.
DOGE infiltrated months ago and you are just reacting now?
The people in power are the same ones who created DOGE. It’s like Epstein - not like they’re going to investigate themselves.
They will investigate themselves, but they’ll find no wrongdoing.
FBI is already hard at work finding no evidence.
I’m less upset that all SSNs might end up compromised and more upset that no one is going to get punished for it. If a career Federal Employee did this, they would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
But since it was Elon’s friends who did it, everyone in power will just shrug and say “who knew this would be such a big deal”…
Lmao, like they’d do that
They would do it to punish out groups…
They sure are making alot of lists lately.
How would changing social security numbers punish people?
If you make the barrier to entry high enough that only people with money can get issued new and secure ssn would be one way.
The more devious thing would to just not allow folks on your “terrorist” list to be allowed new numbers. Now you would have a new way to justify filling your concentration camps.
To be clear I don’t think currently anything like this is planned, this would just be the most fucked up way fascists could capitalize on their own fuck up. Also probably the only reason they would consider going through the hassle of a ssn restructuring.
Someone has to pay for the new SSN system. Someone has to pay to maintain the database for the old system, since a lot of stuff is still reliant on those “old” numbers and will be for some time. Someone has to pay for printing and distributing new cards to everyone. Someone has to pay for gov employees to check IDs and verify people before distribution. Someone is going to have to pay for errors in the deployment. Someone is going to have to pay for the damage done by identity theft.
I would bet that someone will not be Elon, or anyone else at DOGE.
Not with that attitude it won’t be.
0 chance they hand out new SSID, that’s money and work and confusion, imagine every medical entity changing over that code?
First, the govt would need to make a lookup table.
Anyone that used their old ssid for something, or a system that had the old ssid in it, would need a translation to the new ID.
Sooo at what point could you safely stop accepting old ID’s because they’re all changed over? Never. Some random medical provider in east bumfuck, TN, still uses your SSID from their own paper copy. So you’re stuck accepting old SSIDs and translating them into new SSIDs on demand, which completely breaks any security of changing IDs in the first place.
There have been enough nexus/credit leaks over the years, it’s hardly news that those ID’s are compromised.
Just a minor bit of pedantry, but Social Security Numbers are generally abbreviated as SSN, SSID usually refers to a “Service Set Identifier” aka WiFi network name.
You didn’t get your SSN converted to SSID with the microchip Moderna mRNA vax?
I think bumfucking is not legal in Tennessee.
It’s Tennessee. You can have a little bumfucking as a treat, as long as it’s your sibling.
“uncle papa” and all that … as long as your family tree is a circle.
But fucking over bums is encouraged
Of course.
Not if you are republican in Tennessee, you are then encouraged to bumfuck your relatives for fun on Sundays.
It’s the day of the lard after all.
Don’t get so worked about what’s real and what’s not. It’s just the news. Phony as always.
(seriously tho yeah u right.)
True, but the thing is that the people in power will still complain about increased fraud if and when it happens and point to the government as irresponsible custodians of personal data.
more than 300 million Americans
I know wiggle room is the gold standard of journalism… but you can just say “all Americans”.
The rest are being deported.
File a lawsuit against fucking DOGE and MAGA.
And then what? The Department of “””justice””” is part of them.
