Posted on 04/01/2011 4:14:28 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, April 1, 2011 – Beginning June 1, Social Security numbers on military identification cards will begin to disappear, said Air Force Maj. Monica M. Matoush, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
The effort is part of a larger plan to protect service members and other DOD identification card holders from identity theft, officials said.
Criminals use Social Security numbers to steal identities, allowing them to pillage resources, establish credit or to hijack credit cards, bank accounts or debit cards.
Currently, the Social Security number is printed on the back of common access cards, and on the front of cards issued to dependents and retirees. Beginning in June, when current cards expire, they will be replaced with new cards having a DOD identification number replacing the Social Security number, officials said. The DOD identification number is a unique 10-digit number that is assigned to every person with a direct relationship with the department. The new number also will be the service member’s Geneva Convention identification number.
An 11-digit DOD benefits number also will appear on the cards of those people eligible for DOD benefits. The first nine digits are common to a sponsor, the official said, and the last two digits will identify a specific person within the sponsor’s family.
Social Security numbers embedded in the bar codes on the back of identification cards will remain there for the time being, and will be phased out beginning in 2012.
The department will replace identification cards as they expire. “Because cards will be replaced upon expiration, it will be approximately four years until all cards are replaced with the DOD ID number,” Matoush said.
The identity protection program began in 2008, when DOD started removing Social Security numbers from family member identification cards.
hmmm...my blue retiree card expires in 2024. More than the 4 years they said.
Ya' think? Some even use them in the White Hut.
They’ve done this on VA (veteran administration) ID cards three years ago
My wife had her identity sold by some d!ckhead in personnel. Luckily we got a little courtesy call from the FBI before anyone ruined her credit. I predict this will solve almost nothing.
Humm, I wonder if my old serial number: OF-12200xx will still work?
I did BASIC in the Summer of ‘70. My “serial number” was the letters RA & then my SSN. If I’d entered Basic just a week earlier, the Army would have CREATED a number for ME. If I’d been a Draftee the letters US would have started MY #.
RA xxxxx was a regular army enlisted serial number.
US xxxxx was for draftees
O or OF was for officers. They ran out of O numbers not long before I was commissioned, hence the OF. That didn’t last too long before the SSAN became the serial numbers. You never forget your original serial number, or the serial number of your first assigned weapon.
DOD is way behind the private sector again as usual. My company replaced SSN numbers on the cards with an employee ID number years ago.
Probably the best way to handle IDs right now is to use encrypted data matrix bar code on them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_matrix_(computer)
It is a public domain code that can be read by a cell phone with a camera, and can contain over 2,000 alphanumeric characters in a small area.
It was even suggested that when the US military went into Iraq, every Iraqi they met could have been biometrically analyzed, then issued an ID card with just their picture on the front and a data matrix barcode on the back. A quick scan would then confirm the ID of a legitimate citizen, and anyone without an ID would be detained and checked out.
Even the Iraqi police could have used a common cell phone to check the US database. It would have made things much more difficult for the insurgents. And much easier for the Iraqi government as a national ID card, census, voting card, ration card, driver’s license, etc., all in one.
Fake IDs would be extremely hard to make, and because only the photo was obvious, people could not be persecuted for their name or religion by other Iraqis. And only that information that was needed could be provided. For example, if someone showed up for rations, a quick scan of their card would get not information, but just a “yes” or “no” response. If the citizen thought it was in error, he would go to a higher government official who could access more of his information.
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