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A comment on Hackers may have leaked the Social Security Numbers of every American. Parent comment

Re:Hackers may have leaked the Social Security Numbers of ev... by stvltvs on Wednesday August 14, 2024 @10:16AM (#41246358)
My dad etched his SSN on his tools back in the day. It was my student ID as well. Wasn't the SSN not considered secret until later when more transactions happened online instead of IRL where it was harder to impersonate someone?

The bad idea was to try to convert a semi-public number into a secret identifier.

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Re:Hackers may have leaked the Social Security Numbers of ev... by HeyLaughingBoy on Wednesday August 14, 2024 @10:50AM (#41246778)
I forgot all about that!

Back in the 80's, NYC had a program where the local police stations would lend you engravers so you could engrave your SSN on your TV, stereo, etc., so they could be returned if they were stolen and found. Probably also made pawn shops more reluctant to take them.

Guess it made sense at the time ;-)

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Re:Hackers may have leaked the Social Security Numbers of ev... by stavros on Wednesday August 14, 2024 @11:01AM (#41246911)
The bad idea was to have a secret identifier in the first place. Who thought that "a ten digit number printed on a bunch of documents" was a good thing to use as sole proof of someone's identity?
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