Well, if they released her SSN minus the last 4 digits, can someone still steal her identity?
Yes - might take some time. In the worse case, a brute force approach could be done to verify the last four. But given that much of a start, yes it is possible.
Heck, the Social Security Admin will help you do it. http://www.ssa.gov/employer/ssnv.htm
Do you have any idea how fast a computer can gerate 9999 numbers and search them (with the right software of course)? The 9 numbers of a SSN are significant principally because it would take an inordinate amount of time to generate & search all the possible combinations - 9999 numbers - not so very long at all...
They can certainly figure out the remaining 4 digits which upon doing so, they will promptly pull her credit report.
Yes