U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers
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Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers
#2PDF of the study: https://techpolicy.sanford.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites...
Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers
#3I'm sure the military still has a SSN field on EVERY. SINGLE. FORM. they have you fill out while you're in the service. There was talk of replacing that with a "service number" but somehow I doubt they've got around to it yet.
Between VA employees leaving laptops full of PII laying around and that big OPM leak several years ago, I apparently have no private life.
Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers
#4I'm sure the military still has a SSN field on EVERY. SINGLE. FORM. they have you fill out while you're in the service. There was talk of replacing that with a "service number" but somehow I doubt they've got around to it yet. Between VA employees leaving laptops full of PII laying around and that big OPM leak several years ago, I apparently have no private life.
The problem is treating the SSN as a username and a password.
It should not be the only information required to authenticate people.
Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers
#5I'm sure the military still has a SSN field on EVERY. SINGLE. FORM. they have you fill out while you're in the service. There was talk of replacing that with a "service number" but somehow I doubt they've got around to it yet. Between VA employees leaving laptops full of PII laying around and that big OPM leak several years ago, I apparently have no private life.
The problem is treating the SSN as a username and a password. It should not be the only information required to authenticate people.
It should be used for your social security account and nothing else.
Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers
#6I'm sure the military still has a SSN field on EVERY. SINGLE. FORM. they have you fill out while you're in the service. There was talk of replacing that with a "service number" but somehow I doubt they've got around to it yet. Between VA employees leaving laptops full of PII laying around and that big OPM leak several years ago, I apparently have no private life.
Dipi keys are a thing and have been put to good use
Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is treating the SSN as a username and a password. It should not be the only information required to authenticate people.
It should be used for your social security account and nothing else.
Huh. As a member of a generation that has grown up tacitly understanding that social security will very likely be insolvent/cancelled by the time that we're old enough to qualify for it, and thus we shouldn't rely on it whatsoever—it's surreal to consciously connect these two concepts. For me, "social security number" is just the name for the ID number that so many of us have and are used to writing everywhere. The name is just a string of symbols. It sounds silly, but I've never thought about it in relation to social security. Thanks for the mind-bender. :-)
Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers
#8I'm sure the military still has a SSN field on EVERY. SINGLE. FORM. they have you fill out while you're in the service. There was talk of replacing that with a "service number" but somehow I doubt they've got around to it yet. Between VA employees leaving laptops full of PII laying around and that big OPM leak several years ago, I apparently have no private life.
Dipi keys are a thing and have been put to good use
I've never heard of "dipi keys." Can you tell me about them?
Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
It should be used for your social security account and nothing else.
Huh. As a member of a generation that has grown up tacitly understanding that social security will very likely be insolvent/cancelled by the time that we're old enough to qualify for it, and thus we shouldn't rely on it whatsoever—it's surreal to consciously connect these two concepts. For me, "social security number" is just the name for the ID number that so many of us have and are used to writing everywhere. The n…
There's an interesting story about how the social security number evolved to being much more than just for social security. Quick 5 minute primer:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Erp8IAUouus&pp=ygUYY2dwIGdyZXk...
Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers
#10I'm sure the military still has a SSN field on EVERY. SINGLE. FORM. they have you fill out while you're in the service. There was talk of replacing that with a "service number" but somehow I doubt they've got around to it yet. Between VA employees leaving laptops full of PII laying around and that big OPM leak several years ago, I apparently have no private life.
The problem is treating the SSN as a username and a password. It should not be the only information required to authenticate people.
The US military does not use the SSN as a username or a password. They've had smartcards, even on Linux, as far back as 20 years ago or more. Users without smartcards have to go through 2FA with a username/password combination and codes over SMS or proper TOTP (depending on agency).
The problem is that the entire Department of Defense is still very much a paper-oriented organization, and they got rid of service numbers in the 1970s, leaving the SSN as the only meaningful unique identifier. As a result it gets put on every piece of paperwork associated with a service member. Their own recordkeeping practices have the consequence that if you get almost any paperwork regarding a soldier, it has enough information to gain access to other personal information.