CDR: Re: Legislative approaches to ID theft?

[Tim May]

At 9:24 AM -0400 10/25/00, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>Likely means new criminal laws... (today)
>
>SOCIAL ISSUES
>Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of the Inspector General
>Identity Theft Prevention Workshop. Panels will discuss victims'views
>on prevention, Internet issues, workplace ID theft, private industry
>issues and legislative approaches to preventing ID theft

Recall that it was agents of the U.S. Government who made _my_ Social 
Security Number, and other pertinent information, a matter of an open 
court record.


BTW, something that's incredibly bad about modern online security is 
the increasing number of financial companies and agencies that now 
require "the last four digits of your social number" as an enabling 
key. When I speak to a phonedroid about the absurdity and danger of 
this, they act confused.

Declan is right about the above meaning new laws are coming. New laws 
meaning more control. Government won't be affected...it rarely is 
affected by its own legislation.

There are many ways to lessen the dangers of "identity theft." 
Government could start by sticking to the original words on _my_ SS 
card: "For tax and social security purposes only -- not to be used 
for identification."

(Or words very similar to this. Somewhere I still have my original SS 
card, issued in 1969, and this is what it says. I have heard that 
this phrasing was dropped in later years, opening the door for the SS 
number to be used for student I.D. numbers, military I.D. numbers, 
financial record passwords, and all the rest.)

Fucking hypocrites.


--Tim May
-- 
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon"             | black markets, collapse of governments.