At 10:35 PM -0800 12/31/96, Bill Frantz wrote:
At 11:02 AM -0800 12/31/96, Timothy C. May wrote:
There have been several reports cited here recently about changes in the SS laws to make the SS number more of an ID number. ...
And concerns about "identity theft" when such a simple thing as an SS number is the key to so many records, rights, etc.
I don't see how you can have the SS number be both a public ID number and a secret password. Perhaps you could have it be one, but not both. It seems to me that parts of our society are trying have it be a password and parts a public ID number. (Perhaps the same parts?) Doing both just won't work.
(Using SS as a password is subject to all the stealing and replay attacks that make passwords a really bad idea for secure identification.)
???? I never made such a claim, that SS numbers are any kind of secret key or password. The phrase "identity theft," not coined by me, is a recent term of art involving the ease with which those with access to a person's SS number can then acquire credit cards, etc. --Tim May Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside" We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."