I am old enough to have an SS card that explicitly says “not to be used for identification”. And also old enough to remember when it was printing on checks (remember those?) and many states used it for driver’s license numbers.
I assume that passports are pretty secure. Couldn’t the government use the same technology for new Social Security cards?
The problem is no system, no matter how robust, can withstand attacks from within, or negligence, or failure to safeguard the info.
The OPM “hack” for example, wasn’t a hack.
The previous administration outsourced database management to this highly sensitive data to a foreign government, including root access.
Consequently tens of millions of government employees and foreign assets, past and present, to include their fingerprints, security questionaire and background investigation, next of kin, addresses phone #s, everything is presumably in the wrong hands.
Further they also had the ability to add or modify information or individuals undetected. A background check on that person in the future would show a clean individual when in fact he may be a spy or operative. Congress hauled some flunkie before them and yelled at her for an hour or two and that was the last anybody brought it up.
Oh - they signed everybody up for Lifelock or credit protection or some BS like that.
F these people. I hope they die in a fire.
My SS card also has “not to be used for identification” written on it, and when I’ve argued that point in the past, I’ve been told that I can’t do business with the entity requesting it if I don’t provide it.
There are plenty of methods to work around this, but lack of understanding of modern cryptography makes it difficult to legislate into existence.
My Card says the same. I got it when I was 8 back in 1969.