Internal Passports

[Timothy C. May]

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 at 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."