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Social Security Numbers Guessable From Public Data

Available birth info can ease identity theft

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 7, 2009 8:03 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Social Security numbers can be predicted, making them unfit to be “authentication devices” amid increasing worry over identity theft, researchers warn the Washington Post. Knowing a person’s birthday and birthplace can point the way to the first five digits, a study finds. “If they are predictable from public data, then they cannot be considered sensitive,” argues a co-author of the Carnegie-Mellon study.

The first three digits of the number are tied to an applicant’s mailing address; the next two are specific to a region, and may stay the same for years. The last four are “assigned sequentially," the Post notes. Using publicly-available death records and birth information, researchers could predict on the first try, the first five digits of the SSNs of 44% of deceased people born after 1988 and 7% of those born from 1973 to 1988. They could guess the full SSNs of 8.5% of people born after 1988 in fewer than 1,000 tries.

Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue speaks at a news conference at the Treasury Department in Washington, Tuesday, May 12, 2009.
Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue speaks at a news conference at the Treasury Department in Washington, Tuesday, May 12, 2009.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Social security numbers are guessable, researchers find.
Social security numbers are guessable, researchers find.   (Shutterstock)
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For reasons unrelated to this report, the agency has been developing a system to randomly assign SSNs. - Mark Lassiter, a Social Security spokesman

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 6 comments
Newser001
Jul 8, 2009 1:04 AM CDT
' Social Security Numbers Guessable From Public Data ' - No sh!t Sherlock.
Yourself
Jul 7, 2009 11:52 AM CDT
ok, and how does it work for immigrants who are evidently born outside of the country? is it based on their point of origin as in port of entry)? their first address? they country of origin? just curious
2-bits
Jul 7, 2009 7:24 AM CDT
The article isn't doing a very through job of explaining how the numbers in an SSN work. Yes, the first three digits are an area number. However, usually several numbers are assigned to a region as they are exhausted over time. Therefore, if you know when someone was born, you can make a pretty good guess as to what the first three digits are.
Science • US

 
study • identity theft • Social Security • Social Security number

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