October 11, 2017 By Larry Loeb 2 min read

Social Security numbers (SSNs) are well-known to the American populace. First assigned in 1936 to track individuals’ earnings, these numbers have become de facto personal identifiers for the American masses.

SSNs have become linked to identities because of their ubiquity. Most people have a SSN, and it is the path of least resistance to correlate an individual with a unique number that does not change during his or her lifetime. All types of institutions, from government agencies to credit bureaus and employers, keep records of these numbers.

That may change soon. Recent data breaches have demonstrated how a compromised SSN can put an individual’s personal data at risk.

Personal Data at Risk Due to Reliance on SSNs

According to Slate, Rob Joyce, cybersecurity coordinator and a special assistant to President Donald Trump, said at a Washington Post event last week that administration is looking for ways to phase out the use of SSNs as identifiers. “Every time we use the Social Security number, you put it at risk,” Joyce said at the event.

Security experts have long recognized our overuse of SSNs as problematic. But what can be done? Joyce told event attendees that federal agencies had been directed to seek different methods of identification. These methods might include a “modern cryptographic identifier,” such as public and private keys, to decrease reliance on the use of SSNs. However, there is no obvious solution.

Alternative Options

There have been previous attempts to reduce SSN reliance. In January 2016, for example, former President Barack Obama signed a bill that lifted the requirement for taxpayers to include their full SSN on W-2 forms. Similarly, the U.S. Navy rolled out an initiative to replace SSNs with a unique personal identification number issued by the Department of Defense, according to a 2010 memo.

Still, the effort continues. Whatever the eventual solution, it will have a widespread effect on how business gets done throughout the U.S.

More from

ITG05 operations leverage Israel-Hamas conflict lures to deliver Headlace malware

11 min read - As of December 2023, IBM X-Force has uncovered multiple lure documents that predominately feature the ongoing Israel-Hamas war to facilitate the delivery of the ITG05 exclusive Headlace backdoor. The newly discovered campaign is directed against targets based in at least 13 nations worldwide and leverages authentic documents created by academic, finance and diplomatic centers. ITG05’s infrastructure ensures only targets from a single specific country can receive the malware, indicating the highly targeted nature of the campaign.X-Force tracks ITG05 as a…

Exploiting GOG Galaxy XPC service for privilege escalation in macOS

7 min read - Being part of the Adversary Services team at IBM, it is important to keep your skills up to date and learn new things constantly. macOS security was one field where I decided to put more effort this year to further improve my exploitation and operation skills in macOS environments. During my research, I decided to try and discover vulnerabilities in software that I had pre-installed on my laptop, which resulted in the discovery of this vulnerability. In this article, I…

Taking the complexity out of identity solutions for hybrid environments

4 min read - For the past two decades, businesses have been making significant investments to consolidate their identity and access management (IAM) platforms and directories to manage user identities in one place. However, the hybrid nature of the cloud has led many to realize that this ultimate goal is a fantasy. Instead, businesses must learn how to consistently and effectively manage user identities across multiple IAM platforms and directories. As cloud migration and digital transformation accelerate at a dizzying pace, enterprises are left…

IBM identifies zero-day vulnerability in Zyxel NAS devices

12 min read - While investigating CVE-2023-27992, a vulnerability affecting Zyxel network-attached storage (NAS) devices, the IBM X-Force uncovered two new flaws, which when used together, allow for pre-authenticated remote code execution. Zyxel NAS devices are typically used by consumers as cloud storage devices for homes or small to medium-sized businesses. When used together, the flaws X-Force discovered allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the device with superuser permissions and without requiring any credentials. This results in complete control over the…

Topic updates

Get email updates and stay ahead of the latest threats to the security landscape, thought leadership and research.
Subscribe today