Submitted 3 weeks ago by Cnote5@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
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.
I had no idea that they removed that. It’s not kike they changed function!
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.
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?
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.
This is the reality in other countries. In Sweden, our “SSN” is our date of birth followed by four numbers that have different meanings depending on when you were born. During the period I was born it was an area code, and a binary of male/female and a control number. This has changed over time to not be exactly the same for newer generations. All of this information is available publicly to search for through our version of the IRS that then trickles out to various private companies that just publish it out right.
I personally have a dislike for this system, as I am a major privacy enjoyer. But people can’t really do anything with the information if they had it. If someone looks up my name and SSN, they have it, but can’t bring me harm.
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
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.
Changing the system do not make it more secure by default. Here the SSN equivalent is calculated with your name, surname, date and place of birth and a check code, and it is not a secret how to calculate it (it was the very first program you write if you study IT at school for example).
The problem is not SSN number itself, but the fact that you need only it to do everything.
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!
The Trump administration is building a computer system so that States can ‘verify’ a person’s citizenship prior to allowing them to vote.
As an Italian (but think most of EU citizens) who need to show my id card to vote, I don’t really see where is the problem if there is a check if the person could vote or not. I can agree that using the SSN maybe is not the right way but why should people who are not citizes allowed to vote ? For context, in Italy if I have my legal address (residenza) in Milan I cannot vote for the mayor of Rome, and btw, why should I ?
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 ~ $2000 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.
Lmao, like they’d do that
They would do it to punish out groups…
How would changing social security numbers punish people?
A cynic in me suggests that this may be a move to push people off the system and disenfranchise them entirely, or the new rationale to create a second class of people who are forced to live with increased digital vulnerability while a new class of numbers can be generated with different privileges.
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.
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.
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.
Not if you are republican in Tennessee, you are then encouraged to bumfuck your relatives for fun on Sundays.
Don’t get so worked about what’s real and what’s not. It’s just the news. \s
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.
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”…
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.
ssn was never intended to be a form of identification. it was specifically decided that it would not be used as a form of identification by the administration that controlled it
Besides, it’s a really bad form of ID. The numbers aren’t even unique, and up until 2011, a few digits are reserved for geographical information.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_number#Stru…
If I had to reach for a hasty solution, it would be to use the IRS taxpayer ID instead. Of course, that might weaken the SSA’s importance overall, so that wouldn’t be without consequences: en.wikipedia.org/…/Individual_Taxpayer_Identifica…
I guess that shows what people get for believing the state.
i am not going to defend the government, but in this case, it was problem laziness from the private sector. instead of relying on actual identification forms they used the ssn to shortcut paperwork
SIEZE Elons assets arrest try him and repair the damage to American infrastructure with his money
Are we efficient yet?
Capitalism is the most efficient way to distribute resources (to the top).
Yes, but not at anything good.
I have long predicted the entire goal of DOGE was to feed more data to Palantir, and clearly no other company is ever going to be given this level of security clearance so they become dependent on it forever. I think this view is gaining more traction from what I’ve seen.
DOGE was a coup within a coup.
Obviously the entire goal was to make the government dependent on their select batch of private companies which they control. Palantir is one, but don’t forget the huge order for military-grade armored Teslas. And probably many similar cases.
Military grade Teslas? I support ICE having those. DOOR LOCKS, SIZZLE
lol I can confirm this, just gave my ssn to a reputable company’s hr system. And it says that info is already exists…
I will keep laughing at Americans till they manage to get their broken democracy to establish an ID system like every other country.
The same group that pushes for voter ID laws refuses to implement a national ID system because they’re afraid of the mark of the beast.
Too bad they already wear the mark, in the form of an ugly red hat
Mark of the beast? Isn’t that something about the devil? I’m not sure what you mean
The mark of the beast is fiat currency.
Just add a 1 at the end of them all. That’s what I do when my work says I have to change my password.
Same. My password is on hunter2111111111111 now.
Shit, shouldn’t have shared it. I’ll just have to change it to >!hunter21111111111111!<.
I don’t know what you’re talking about, all I see is *******************
I’m sure that this will be more expensive to fix than whatever “savings” Elons ghouls have managed to bring.
They “leak” the numbers, then only issue new ones to the people they like…
Then require them as identification for voting
Instead of new SSNs, how about we maybe the number less risky in general?
It should never have served as a “secret”. Authenticating someone needs more than some account number. SSN should be more of a “username”, not a password.
Thanks DOGE! Jesus, trump, how could you be so fucking stupid and uncaring? You have done nothing more than shove the monopoly board of america off of the table in a big tantrum because you were losing. Don’t forget, America made you, America can bring you down.
They needed to be changed 5 data breaches ago. Thank you Equifax :)
I was going to guess that it was one of Trump’s idiot corrupt collaborators or AI, and here it is, Elon Musk’s idiot collaborators.
This is how Americans are going to lose their right to vote. The process will be “slow” for specific states and regions, just long enough to miss the midterms.
aka_quant_noir@hcommons.social 5 hours ago
@Cnote5
Or we could criminalize retention of any and all personally identifying information, and enforce that on everyone from Google to dark web site admins.
I suggest shuttering business models that require such collection, like AdSense and credit check companies.
Cnote5@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I like that idea.