Looks like everyone's Social was stolen, just lovely

[LuvOrlando]

Just lovely

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hackers-may-stolen-social-security-100000278.html

What do you think should be done about it?

Not for nothing but if AI is such a big deal now how about we all get new socials? Banks and IRS are the only ones that really need that info so how tough can it be to give them the new ones and start over?

 

[Allison]

Very tough.

 

[sam_gordon]

I assumed mine has probably been "out there" for years anyways.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Done? LOL. Nothing will be done. (For which I’m extremely grateful because if the government tried to do anything it would be obscenely expensive and work like crap.)

 

[gottalovepluto]

I assumed mine has probably been "out there" for years anyways.

It has. Thanks Equifax!

 

[cvjw]

My identity has already been stolen twice from various data breaches. My credit is frozen. No one can do anything with my SSN. I highly recommend doing the same. Getting things straightened out after someone opens a credit card in your name is time consuming and extremely frustrating.

 

[LuvOrlando]

But why should we all be ok with this? We should be able to get new ones. If a social is compromised as long as I am attached to a number and that number can be followed why not? All I hear about is how great AI is now how fast it is and how much info can be processed, great, use it to protect us - let it be just a set of 2 identifiers and if the old one is used it is suspicious an the new one is more credible.

 

[tvguy]

Not sure anything can be done.

My Social Security number was my student ID number in College and they ENCOURAGED students to have their Social Security number pre-printed on their checks.

I moved into the working world, and my Social Security number was my Medical Insurance ID number until about 25 years ago. Every time I went to the Doctor, they sent a claim on paper (before computers were common) with it on the paperwork. My kids played Soccer and Little League and it was on the paper form the leagues kept in case of emergency. I was my son's little league information officer and I had the Social Security numbers of all 400 kids in the league on my laptop in the little league registration database that I uploaded to Little League National. Not sure how Little League handled that data, but that laptop is long gone and I took a hammer to the hard drive to make sure that data could not be accessed from it.

Oh, and then when security became a concern, some businesses started Xing out most of your Social Security number, but some x-ed out the first 5 digits, and some x-ed out the last 6 digits since there was no standardization yet.

Right now I am "covered" by Credit Protection Services being paid for by four different places my information may have been compromised at. Once a month I get an email that my landline number and my email address have been found on the "dark web". Not much else I can do.

 

[gottalovepluto]

But why should we all be ok with this?

Because we don’t want to hit our heads against a wall, screaming for the impossible.

But, you do you! Maybe you’re destined to be a Congressman/woman and you’ll lead the charge to fix the system!

 

[georgina]

I have yet to see this reported on any news sites I consider reputable.

Our data has been hacked multiple times through various businesses and I get credit alerts whenever I open a new account

 

[tvguy]

I have yet to see this reported on any news sites I consider reputable.

Our data has been hacked multiple times through various businesses and I get credit alerts whenever I open a new account

Well, not knowing what news sites you consider reputable, I may be sticking my neck out here, but a quick Google News search shows CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, AP, and NPR I hope at least one of those is in your reputable list.
I don't anticipate ever opening another account in my lifetime so any such notification would be suspicious.

 

[Skippyboo]

Not sure anything can be done.

My Social Security number was my student ID number in College and they ENCOURAGED students to have their Social Security number pre-printed on their checks.

I moved into the working world, and my Social Security number was my Medical Insurance ID number until about 25 years ago. Every time I went to the Doctor, they sent a claim on paper (before computers were common) with it on the paperwork. My kids played Soccer and Little League and it was on the paper form the leagues kept in case of emergency. I was my son's little league information officer and I had the Social Security numbers of all 400 kids in the league on my laptop in the little league registration database that I uploaded to Little League National. Not sure how Little League handled that data, but that laptop is long gone and I took a hammer to the hard drive to make sure that data could not be accessed from it.

Oh, and then when security became a concern, some businesses started Xing out most of your Social Security number, but some x-ed out the first 5 digits, and some x-ed out the last 6 digits since there was no standardization yet.

Right now I am "covered" by Credit Protection Services being paid for by four different places my information may have been compromised at. Once a month I get an email that my landline number and my email address have been found on the "dark web". Not much else I can do.

My SS was my student id too at college. So it was on every test I took from 1990-1994.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

But why should we all be ok with this?

Being resigned with breaches of our sensitive information isn't the same as being fine with it. But there's only so much we can do about it usually only after the fact. You can create hard passwords and such but often something is still going to be leaked somewhere by something.

But pertinent to the SSN thing when I was at the insurance company I was never allowed to verbally say someone's SSN. The agent would say it and I would just be able to say can you repeat that if I wanted to be sure it was correct. However, once in the system it became part of the digital world.

 

[barkley]

Banks and IRS are the only ones that really need that info so how tough can it be to give them the new ones and start over?

it is used for far more than that-it is the single unique idenfier for a myriad of an individual records. in the course of working with the public i had to assist a small handful of people whose social security numbers were so compromised that social security took the unheard of choice to assign them a new one (it realy almost never happens) and the amount of work they had to go through (and likely will for the rest of their lives) to cross reference their information was horrific. it's not like the social security administration is going to send out a notification to every potential entity that uses or has historicaly used social security numbers to alert them of the new number-and would you realy want them to b/c it would defeat the purpose of getting a new uncompromised number. educational records, professionaly licensing, medical records, earning records (this was how we caught identity theft of young children- kind of a dead giveaway when a 6 month old starts showing earned income)....there are so many records that you may not think about needing access to for years but when you do it's the one unique way your records are located.

thankfuly there are ways to protect credit and banking from these events. i think one area people fail to look to in protecting their number is their social security administration records-look to make sure your earnings are correct and credited b/c the last thing you want to deal with at retirement (if it's still around when you do) is try to correct errors dating back decades.

 

[tjpaloha]

Amazing with all the tech geniuses that there are always people who can out genius them

 

[Pooh2]

I recently came across a letter my husband had written to me when he was in Officers Training School for the military.
He said that in order for him to be allowed to receive mail from home, the letter needed certain information including his social security number on the outside of the envelope.
That was 40 years ago.
Could not have imagined at that time that things would evolve to what we have going on today!

 

[tony67]

I recently came across a letter my husband had written to me when he was in Officers Training School for the military.
He said that in order for him to be allowed to receive mail from home, the letter needed certain information including his social security number on the outside of the envelope.
That was 40 years ago.
Could not have imagined at that time that things would evolve to what we have going on today!

Yeah some genius decided to get rid of the service number in 1974 and use SSN.
SSN was used on everything. Its on my duffle bag, its on all my paper work, its even on my dog tags.

In 2011 they finally decided to go back to a service number - not sure how far along they are with that.

 

[goofyernmost]

Yeah some genius decided to get rid of the service number in 1974 and use SSN.
SSN was used on everything. Its on my duffle bag, its on all my paper work, its even on my dog tags.

In 2011 they finally decided to go back to a service number - not sure how far along they are with that.

That changed around 1968 or 1969. When I enlisted I had a service number that was on our dog tags etc. Shortly after that they changed it to the Social Security number but publicly they only used the last four digits for it and still do. But really we have had to give our SS# thousands of times in our lives. Want a loan you need to give that number. Get a drivers license you need to give that number. Get a job you need to give that number. Do your taxes by internet you need to give that number. It is literally everywhere. If you got a new one tomorrow you would still have to have it listed for things that you need in your lifetime currently and future. All we can really hope for in this world of constantly advancing technology is that all that effort in wanting to get rich will produce a system that will prevent dishonest people from getting that information. Or maybe we should just find a way to prevent dishonest people.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Amazing with all the tech geniuses that there are always people who can out genius them

That's because most of the time the hackers take advantage of the human factor. Most of these hacks are done by gaining access through human mistakes. Tech geniuses can throw up all the tech protection they want, but all it takes is one unsuspecting/dumb human to click on that email telling them they've won a free cruise to the Bahamas - and all the tech protections are circumvented and the hackers are into a confidential system. This story is very concerning, but not news. I expect most of our SSNs have been compromised at some point over the past decade....

 

[kdonnel]

If you do not have your credit frozen, you are playing with fire, even before this event.