Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Wednesday, October 04, 2017

White House and Equifax Agree: Social Security Numbers Should Go

The Trump administration is exploring ways to replace the use of Social Security numbers as the main method of assuring people’s identities in the wake of consumer credit agency Equifax Inc.’s massive data breach.

The administration has called on federal departments and agencies to look into the vulnerabilities of employing the identifier tied to retirement benefits, as well as how to replace the existing system, according to Rob Joyce, special assistant to the president and White House cybersecurity coordinator.

“I feel very strongly that the Social Security number has outlived its usefulness,” Joyce said Tuesday at a cyber conference in Washington organized by the Washington Post. “Every time we use the Social Security number you put it at risk.”

Joyce’s comments came as former Equifax CEO Richard Smith testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the first of four hearings this week on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers from both parties expressed outrage over the size of the breach as well as the company’s response, and grilled Smith on the timeline of the incident, including when top executives learned about it.

Smith said the rising number of hacks involving Social Security numbers have eroded its security value.

More

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I smell a rat. They want to get rid of SSN's so they can force us all to either bio metric DNA scanning or some kind of implanted chip.

The Equifax breech was an inside job.

Anonymous said...

I cringe every time I have to give my SS # to any secretary at a doctors office. Better yet when she repeats it aloud to make certain I have whispered it correctly. Saw this coming many years ago.

Anonymous said...

LONG overdue!

Anonymous said...

Equifax should never be trusted with anything they say. I believe they are part of antifa .

Anonymous said...

Don’t give it to them. They have you’re name addesss, date of birth, health insurance info. There’s absolutely nothing that office needs your SSN# for. If they insist on having it, leave and find another doctor.

Anonymous said...

some cant wait to get their mark...i fear by the time i reach retirement this may be in place. GPS, elimnating cash etc makes it easy. the technology is already here

Revelation 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Anonymous said...

some cant wait to get their mark...i fear by the time i reach retirement this may be in place. GPS, elimnating cash etc makes it easy. the technology is already here

Revelation 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Anonymous said...

When they changed military service numbers to Social Security numbers, it was a major mistake, just one more way to compromise the SS#.

Anonymous said...

It use to be illegal for anyone to ask for your SS number to identify you but the idiots in congress were lobbied to allow it. Our Congress is to blame for it!!

Anonymous said...

I believe the "number" is what links us to our ENTITLEMENT to the money we were forced to pay into the Social Security Trust Fund. The Fund of course was "entrusted" to the US government - which is completely and utterly corrupt and psychotic and so, it stole the money.

Therefore I do not trust any proposal to rid all of us of our "numbers" (9 digits) which entitle us to the money we were promised and the Fund to which we were forced to pay.