Experts agree that Social Security numbers need to change — but there's no solution in sight

NBC News ^ | November 4, 2018 | Brandi Vincent

[re_tail20]

At a recent panel on modernizing Social Security numbers, Candace Worley, vice president and chief technical strategist for cybersecurity firm McAfee, laid out the core problem with the national identity system that has been in place since 1936.

“You can’t have 80 percent of your numbers compromised and continue to consider it a secure form of identity,” Worley said.

Social Security Numbers, or SSNs, remain an integral part of how Americans and U.S. residents are identified for everything from opening bank accounts and applying for loans to enrolling in Medicare and filing taxes. But a series of major data breaches in the past decade have exposed the Social Security numbers of almost 158 million Americans, opening a large majority of the country to the risk of identity theft.

Those breaches have pushed privacy advocates and politicians to call for a new system.

“Time is of the essence,” Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee, said. “We must promptly evaluate options and begin putting in place those that will best protect Americans from identity theft.”

The problem is well-recognized, but the solution is not. Experts and politicians have warned that the SSN system is badly in need of an update, but there is little consensus on just what should be done. Most solutions are either technologically untested, expensive to implement — or both.

GET SMART

One of the most common suggestions for updating SSNs is moving the U.S. to a “smart card” system, like the one suggested in a recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, a nonprofit research organization that aims to provide solutions for current and emerging foreign policy and national security issues

“The simplest approach to modernization would be for the U.S. to transform the venerable Social Security Card...

[hanamizu]

When I went to the local Social Security office to arrange my retirement payments, I was surprised at how few geezers/geezerttes there were in the waiting room. It seemed like most were young families.

[mabarker1]

Ok

[qaz123]

What seemed like a long time ago, I was a detective assigned to the Fugitive Unit in a major metro department. Every year the US Marshals did, FALCON. Initially, it was a nationwide sweep, lasted for a week and was supposed to be for sex offenders, folks that didn’t register, etc. Morphed into just a sweep of anyone that had warrants, we went after them.

Went to one location, talked to the parents about their 30something child, who still lived with them. Middle class neighborhood. Brand new Hummer in the driveway. 30something pulls up and gets out of his newer sedan, Lincoln, if I remember. Fresh from the gym. Gets put in cuffs and begs that we take it easy with him because he has a bad back and is on SSI. Obviously, not bad enough to keep him from working out and playing basketball all morning.

He’s just one of thousands, if not, millions of examples of people scamming a corrupt system and the taxpayer’s are forced to pay.

[Sgt_Schultze]

And a voter ID card at the same time...tied to a national birth/death database - voided instantly, nationally at time of death.