this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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All U.S. Social Security numbers may need to be changed following a massive breach that is already being investigated as a national threat (www.ecoticias.com)
submitted 2 days ago by Cnote5@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] WraithGear@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

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

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I guess that shows what people get for believing the state.

[–] WraithGear@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

i am not going to defend the government, but in this case, it was problem laziness from the private sector. instead of relying on actual identification forms they used the ssn to shortcut paperwork