According to a protected disclosure filed with the Office of Special Counsel, Borges told the Government Accountability Project that DOGE officials working at Social Security created a “live copy” of the country’s Social Security records in a separate cloud environment that sidestepped usual security checks.
The group says those lapses put the Social Security information of more than 300 million Americans at risk.
What a perfect time to stop using social security numbers for specifically the thing they were not designed to be.
They actually need to publicly release everyone’s SSNs so that they can’t be used for authentication anymore, which they never should have been
SSNs are generally considered public information but how the SSN is linked to other information is usually the more difficult bit to find and it’s generally pay-walled. (Any jackass with a business license and a credit card can usually buy background check information for ‘hiring’.)
But no, it shouldn’t be solely used for authentication. That is just dumb. However, it can be used as part of a larger verification and validation scheme while building authentication/authorization profiles. In most systems that I have seen that use full or partial SSNs, it is always linked to several other identifiers that need to match.
They are definitely not. People consider it increased risk for identity theft if they hear their SSN was stolen and you just cited how people are still using them in part for authentication. They need to be completely useless for authentication
I am making a slightly different point and have a bias to this perspective: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/SD/19230.pdf
I am saying that an SSN can be part of a larger validation scheme, not the only key to the castle. Specifically for government sites, SSNs can be linked to IRS data to verify places of last residence. A person generally needs to verify multiple items that are referenced by the SSN before basic authentication can be established and set by the user. (This is part of the full Authentication, Authorization and Access Control triad.)
An SSN is just a broad level identifier. If you look at many laws around the release of SSNs, the redaction is usually in place to prevent the linking of different documents and other data points.
If I released my SSN in this chat, I could be fully doxxed in a matter of seconds. It’s mainly because there are many legal systems in place that use an SSN as a primary key, of sorts. (It’s a bit more than that, as SSNs can be duplicated in some circumstances.)
So to say, at a high level, an SSN is considered private is absolutely correct. However, it’s so easily referenced and obtainable it really isn’t fully private either.
If I was to generate a full list of every possible SSN in the US (which I have done, multiple times), that list is effectively useless to anyone who obtains a copy of it. So, by itself, an SSN is effectively public.
If I released my SSN in this chat, I could be fully doxxed in a matter of seconds.
000-00-0002
000, 666 and 900-999 are invalid area numbers and any digit group of all zeros is also invalid. Thanks for playing!
Regardless of whether or not they are breached, the social security numbering system needs to be changed because it is far from a secure number.
Changing the system do not make it more secure by default. Here the SSN equivalent is calculated with your name, surname, date and place of birth and a check code, and it is not a secret how to calculate it (it was the very first program you write if you study IT at school for example).
The problem is not SSN number itself, but the fact that you need only it to do everything.
Let me guess… just in time for a 2028 election where we all suddenly need our valid SSN?
The Trump administration is building a computer system so that States can ‘verify’ a person’s citizenship prior to allowing them to vote.
This system has failed in many, many ways. That makes me think that they would use the SSN database and other intelligence sources in order to setup the system to fail at a much higher rate for everyone but likely MAGA voters.
This is a conspiracy I can get behind!
This is a conspiracy I can get behind!
Oh yeah this part is 100% my personal inference:
That makes me think that they would use the SSN database and other intelligence sources in order to setup the system to fail at a much higher rate for everyone but likely MAGA voters.
It isn’t completely baseless, the DHS has created a tool called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE. The push on the right is to make it so that everyone has to prove their citizenship in order to vote. So a system like this SAVE system is what they would want to put in place to make it easy to ‘verify citizenship’ at polling places.
Having an electronic tool who’s underlying system is a complete black box and exclusively controlled by the executive branch which has been shown to incorrectly identify people’s citizenship status would allow a group acting in bad faith to surreptitiously introduce ‘errors’ that affect voters who have been identified (by the domestic spy network that is Google and Co.) as being likely opposition voters.
I’m not saying that this is what IS happening. I’m saying that this system is exactly the kind of system that you would design if you were trying to do what I’m suggesting.
Here’s a source about the system, because you shouldn’t just trust ‘people’ on the Internet:
https://www.propublica.org/article/save-voter-citizenship-tool-mistakes-confusion
The Trump administration is building a computer system so that States can ‘verify’ a person’s citizenship prior to allowing them to vote.
As an Italian (but think most of EU citizens) who need to show my id card to vote, I don’t really see where is the problem if there is a check if the person could vote or not. I can agree that using the SSN maybe is not the right way but why should people who are not citizes allowed to vote ? For context, in Italy if I have my legal address (residenza) in Milan I cannot vote for the mayor of Rome, and btw, why should I ?
The check in the US is done when you register to vote. Once you are registered, a variety of proofs of ID can be used to vote at your polling location.
Requiring a passport and birth cert or some other strong ID are unnecessary at the actual voting site. The main reason for doing this is to make voting take longer, and be more strenuous, which means that you can have a greater effect on election results by manipulating the number of polling stations for an area.
The check in the US is done when you register to vote. Once you are registered, a variety of proofs of ID can be used to vote at your polling location.
And why the double check ? It would not be better to just go to the polling station, show your id and then vote ?
(I undestand that it is a simplification, in the US people move way more often that here and this add some other problems)Requiring a passport and birth cert or some other strong ID are unnecessary at the actual voting site. The main reason for doing this is to make voting take longer,
Considering that if I have no one before me to vote, it take about 30 seconds from the moment I enter the polling station and the moment I am handed the cards to cast the vote I would argue that saying that this way it will take longer is not really true.
And, btw, we do the check of the document against a printed list who containt all the names of the people who can vote at a polling station, splitted between man and women.and be more strenuous, which means that you can have a greater effect on election results by manipulating the number of polling stations for an area.
Every difficulty you build to try to make harder for your enemy voters to cast their vote is a difficulty you set up also for your voters.
And simply manipulating the number of polling station in a certain area give you nothing: people who want to vote against you will come anyway and you cannot know if they will come before your voters of after and which voters eventually will lose their patience and just go home without casting a voteIt’s not a double check at the polling station. They simply need to confirm that you showed up and voted today, and have a way to ID you. The actual check, that you are legally allowed to vote, and that you are actually who you say you are, and that you aren’t allowed to vote anywhere else, all happened when you register to vote. That is a long process, and that’s why it is done before you actually need to go vote.
Every difficulty you build to try to make harder for your enemy voters to cast their vote is a difficulty you set up also for your voters.
Elections are run by the individual states (unless something egregiously unconstitutional is going on) which allows the governor and even local election officials to make decisions that affect how hard it is to vote almost down to a street level basis. If you don’t want people from blue areas to vote, you just put in fewer polling stations, and make them in less convenient places for areas that skew blue on the map. So adding 30 seconds to the voting time doesn’t really matter for a rural station that might need to service 100 people in a day, but for an inner city location that might need to service 100 people a minute those 30 seconds per person really add up.
Elections are run by the individual states (unless something egregiously unconstitutional is going on) which allows the governor and even local election officials to make decisions that affect how hard it is to vote almost down to a street level basis.
Same here, it does not seems to be a problem.
If you don’t want people from blue areas to vote, you just put in fewer polling stations, and make them in less convenient places for areas that skew blue on the map.
That assumes that you already know how people would vote. Yes, historical data could give a hint but not a certainty. It is some times that polls are spectacularly wrong.
So adding 30 seconds to the voting time doesn’t really matter for a rural station that might need to service 100 people in a day, but for an inner city location that might need to service 100 people a minute those 30 seconds per person really add up.
True, but think about who could spare more time when voting (hint, probably not the people you want to vote) and you will realize that it is a stupid idea.
I agree with you in principal, verifying your identity before voting is important because elections are important. We should be having a conversation about creating a system that is both comprehensive and also doesn’t impose a burden on people without means. For example, a lot of people don’t have an ID to satisfy the proposed requirements and would have a difficult time getting these credentials before election day.
In addition, in order to get these documents a person would have to jump through a lot of bureaucratic loopholes and pay fees. Many of these people are poorer and are more affected by the dire economic situation. The systems are complicated and despite being involved in this sphere for a few years I couldn’t tell you the steps and fees required to get all of the documents. This isn’t a simple system where a person can just walk into a government office and walk out with a working ID.
If we’re going to have a system requiring Secure IDs (I’m not sure the EU analog, but you guys have a similar secure identity scheme being pushed) then we need to make getting Secure IDs dead simple because the average citizen needs to be able to vote and also shouldn’t be subjected to heavy administrative burden in order to participate in the democratic system.
In this case, this isn’t even about showing an ID. There is an electronic system being created by the DHS, at the whim of Donald Trump, which is implementing a project that is not authorized or funded by laws passed by Congress (so, its already an illegal expenditure of funds). This project is intended to be given to the States so that on election day a person’s information can be entered into the system and the system will say if they are a valid citizen or not. If the system says that they are not a citizen, then they cannot vote.
One of the, many, many, problems with this system is that we have no idea how it works internally. The proposal is to allow a black box system that is controlled entirely by Donald Trump be responsible for determining who is and isn’t allowed to vote. Any errors of this system that occur on election day and disqualify people from voting will result in people being unable to vote and also unable to meaningfully challenge their disqualification in court (because they have until midnight to vote and no courts work that fast).
Even if you trusted Donald Trump to fairly and impartially administer elections (and if you do then you are probably a crazy person in the thrall of the US alt-right propaganda campaign), the system has objectively failed on simple tests and has rejected actual US Citizens. We have no idea how this system works and why it is rejecting US Citizen.
On top of all of that. The entire premise that this system was created to solve was the idea that the outcome of US elections have been altered by non-citizens voting. There is no evidence that non-citizens are voting and the actual cases of voter fraud that are brought by State and Federal law enforcement are nowhere close to the scale required to actually change election outcomes (there may be 100-200 election fraud cases across the entire US in any given election year).
So, it’s a system which unilaterally gets to determine who can vote. It exists to solve a problem that isn’t happening, it is not authorized by law, and is controlled by a person who has shown both the intention and immorality to subvert democratic outcomes up to and including using mob violence, witness intimidation and political pressure against his enemies.
You’re right that having secure, fair and free elections are important. In my opinion, this system doesn’t solve any problems and exists completely to allow for Donald Trump to disqualify people at scale using external data which allows for them to determine which way a person is likely to vote. We don’t know how the system works and it could be as simple as If Democrat Voter -> Disqualify 30% of the time.
It’s illegal, created for criminal purposes and will likely be an exhibit in the Conspiracy Against Rights/Treason cases against Trump, his minions and his financial backers once they’re swept from power in the midterms and then impeached and removed from office.
I agree with you in principal, verifying your identity before voting is important because elections are important. We should be having a conversation about creating a system that is both comprehensive and also doesn’t impose a burden on people without means. For example, a lot of people don’t have an ID to satisfy the proposed requirements and would have a difficult time getting these credentials before election day.
That is your problem number 2…
In addition, in order to get these documents a person would have to jump through a lot of bureaucratic loopholes and pay fees. Many of these people are poorer and are more affected by the dire economic situation. The systems are complicated and despite being involved in this sphere for a few years I couldn’t tell you the steps and fees required to get all of the documents. This isn’t a simple system where a person can just walk into a government office and walk out with a working ID.
and that is you problem number 1.
It is inconceivable to me that a situation like this could even exist in the US.
I get that many US people would start crying about “freedom” and everything else but the basic line is that a ID should be mandated by law for everyone. And it should be easy to obtain, I mean how difficult could be to do it ? Seriously.It seems to me that these are not real problem, other countries solved them dozens of years ago, it is just that you people (assuming you are from US) don’t want to solve them.
If we’re going to have a system requiring Secure IDs (I’m not sure the EU analog, but you guys have a similar secure identity scheme being pushed) then we need to make getting Secure IDs dead simple because the average citizen needs to be able to vote and also shouldn’t be subjected to heavy administrative burden in order to participate in the democratic system.
A card with a chip and all the information in that chip, to read it you need just a reader.
Or a qrcode with all the information encoded ?
Even the old Italian ID (made of paper) was secure, it does not seems to be a problem without solutions, just copy from someone who already did it.As for the problem with electronic black box voting stations, yes, they are a problem per se irregardless of who propose or built them. They would be a problem for the exact same reasons if they were proposed by Biden. But I still belive that a selection of who can vote done as you suggest is impraticable, you have no way of knowing who vote what before. A massive refusal to allow a certain population to vote would be noted in the end.
It seems to me that these are not real problem, other countries solved them dozens of years ago, it is just that you people (assuming you are from US) don’t want to solve them.
I’m aware of the problems and I donate a large portion of my time towards working to fix these issues which were put into place long before I was born. These systems exist as they do for a lot of reasons, many of which are bad. Fixing them will take time and political willpower which, prior to ID being weaponized as a means of cutting off voters, did not exist in the US.
It isn’t as simple as printing out a QR code or loading personal documents onto an ISO 14443-compliant smartcard. It will require infrastructure, staffing and public education. This isn’t something that can be done by election day (in November '26).
They would be a problem for the exact same reasons if they were proposed by Biden. But I still belive that a selection of who can vote done as you suggest is impraticable, you have no way of knowing who vote what before. A massive refusal to allow a certain population to vote would be noted in the end.
It’s bad idea no matter who is in charge. All of our voting systems are open to observers and there are multiple observers at all critical points of voting.
Circumventing all of those checks by having a single system who can simply deny a person the ability to vote with no recourse is a bad idea, it would have been a bad idea under Biden and it is a bad idea now.
A massive refusal to allow a certain population to vote would be noted in the end.
It doesn’t need to be massive to affect outcomes. A few thousand votes can swing close elections.
Even if someone notices something strange. Do you imagine that Donald Trump would allow for the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the Department of Homeland Security’s handling of claimed election interference? Would the newly elected Republican Congress vote to impeach him if he didn’t?
If someone notices vote interference, should they call Donald Trump’s FBI, Donald Trump’s DHS or Donald Trump’s CIA? How do you imagine that conversation would go once it made it to the attention of Pattel, Noem or Gabbard?
I fucking CALLED IT.
I’ve been getting so many loan applications since they opened pandoras box last year. never had this problem. I even just got an alert my SSN has been found on the darknet.
take my advice, freeze your credit report at all three major credit firms NOW. don’t wait, takes an hour for all three all online. doesn’t matter of you’re 9 or 90, do it do it do it.
Also - create an irs profile and check to require a password to file taxes. And also create ssa profile and check the data.
DOGE infiltrated months ago and you are just reacting now?
The people in power are the same ones who created DOGE. It’s like Epstein - not like they’re going to investigate themselves.
They will investigate themselves, but they’ll find no wrongdoing.
ssn was never intended to be a form of identification. it was specifically decided that it would not be used as a form of identification by the administration that controlled it
Besides, it’s a really bad form of ID. The numbers aren’t even unique, and up until 2011, a few digits are reserved for geographical information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_number#Structure
If I had to reach for a hasty solution, it would be to use the IRS taxpayer ID instead. Of course, that might weaken the SSA’s importance overall, so that wouldn’t be without consequences: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Taxpayer_Identification_Number
I’m less upset that all SSNs might end up compromised and more upset that no one is going to get punished for it. If a career Federal Employee did this, they would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
But since it was Elon’s friends who did it, everyone in power will just shrug and say “who knew this would be such a big deal”…
more than 300 million Americans
I know wiggle room is the gold standard of journalism… but you can just say “all Americans”.
The rest are being deported.
File a lawsuit against fucking DOGE and MAGA.
SIEZE Elons assets arrest try him and repair the damage to American infrastructure with his money
Are we efficient yet?
Capitalism is the most efficient way to distribute resources (to the top).
lol I can confirm this, just gave my ssn to a reputable company’s hr system. And it says that info is already exists…
I will keep laughing at Americans till they manage to get their broken democracy to establish an ID system like every other country.
The same group that pushes for voter ID laws refuses to implement a national ID system because they’re afraid of the mark of the beast.
Too bad they already wear the mark, in the form of an ugly red hat
Mark of the beast? Isn’t that something about the devil? I’m not sure what you mean
Yeah, in the book of Revelation in the Bible as a sign of the end times followers of Satan will have a visible mark on them. Many evangelical Christian conspiracy theorists believe that in a literal sense. Paired with many conservatives also not wanting the government to be able to track them, a national ID system (as opposed to state IDs) has never really gain traction.
You can read more about this here if you’re interested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_beast#Mark_of_the_beast
Some fundamentalist Christian groups, as well as various Christian writers in other traditions, interpret the mark as a requirement for all commerce to mean that the mark might actually be an object in the right hand or forehead with the function of a credit card, such as RFID microchip implants.[73] Some of these groups believe the implantation of chips may be the imprinting of the mark of the beast, prophesied to be a requirement for all trade and a precursor to God’s wrath.[74][75] Similar objections were raised about barcodes upon their introduction.[76]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some groups associated COVID-19 vaccines and mask wearing with the mark of the beast, or that it was a microchip in the vaccine.[77] Some religious leaders spoke out against this as a misinterpretation of Revelation 13:16-18.[78] Medical institutions such as Hennepin County Medical Center noted this in their fact sheets about the vaccine.[79] A similar version was spread by Marjorie Taylor Greene, who referred to vaccine passports as being the mark of the beast.[80]
Christians should show they’re not the antichrist by getting “Nero,” which is Greek for “not the beast” tattooed on their forehead
The mark of the beast is fiat currency.
We should get ahead of the curve by making Markcoin then. Let’s do halfsies on an ICO.
I’m sure that this will be more expensive to fix than whatever “savings” Elons ghouls have managed to bring.
