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Researchers Guess Social Security Numbers With Help of Social Networks

by Terrence O'Brien on July 8, 2009 at 03:12 PM

Researchers Guess Social Security Numbers With Help of Social Networks
Here is some terrifying news for those of you who are paranoid about identity theft: Criminals may be able to guess your Social Security Number (SSN) with little more than your birth date and home town.

Researchers at Carnegie-Mellon have found that using only publicly available data, such as that posted to a Facebook profile, they were able to guess the first five digits of a person's SSN on the first try 44 -percent of the time, provided that person was born in 1988 or later. In 8.5 percent of the cases, they were able to successfully guess all nine digits within the first 1,000 attempts.



Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross used the "Death Master File" from the Social Security Administration (SSA), a publicly available list of the SSNs of the deceased, to look for patterns in how the numbers were assigned. The list is public in order to prevent people from assuming the identities of those who have passed, but Gross and Acquisti showed that it could be used to steal identities of the living.

When plotted out on a graph, the duo discovered that where and when one was born corresponded directly to the SSN issued. With a little computer ingenuity and some patience, the pair found the SSN of almost anyone could possibly be guessed.

Social Security spokesman Mark Lassiter told the Associated Press that the public should not panic since, "there is no foolproof method for predicting a person's Social Security number." The SSA is also preparing to implement a new system for issuing SSNs next year that will be completely random. Of course, that only helps if you're born after 2009. [From: Newsvine]

Tags: crime, facebook, identity theft, IdentityTheft, idtheft, security, social security, social security number, socialnetworking, SocialSecurity, SocialSecurityNumber, top

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