According to a protected disclosure filed with the Office of Special Counsel, Borges told the Government Accountability Project that DOGE officials working at Social Security created a “live copy” of the country’s Social Security records in a separate cloud environment that sidestepped usual security checks.

The group says those lapses put the Social Security information of more than 300 million Americans at risk.

  • qx128@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    Say it with me!

    A 👏 social 👏 security 👏 number 👏 is 👏 NOT 👏 a 👏 valid 👏 identity 👏 verification 👏 method.

    The idea that all SSNs should be changed is dumb.

    The fix is to get dumb people to stop using it as an identity verification method.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    Thanks DOGE! Jesus, trump, how could you be so fucking stupid and uncaring? You have done nothing more than shove the monopoly board of america off of the table in a big tantrum because you were losing. Don’t forget, America made you, America can bring you down.

  • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    3 days ago

    Thanks a lot DOGE. So clearly Elon Musk gives every American compensation, we get new numbers and have all of our credit history wiped clean to start new right? Bc otherwise this just means we’ve all been massively fucked by Trump and his band of idiots

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      His wealth spread across everyone living in the U.S. is ~ $2500 a person

      Not adult, not citizen, not household,…

      Person

      • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 days ago

        I feel like he would just buy his luxury in prison like Pablo Escobar.

        I think the worst punishment for people like Thiel and Musk would be to have their assets seized and any future wages garnished to be paid to the victims of their crimes, while they’re forced to attempt to survive in the society they’ve helped create.

        The consequences they face will serve as an example and deterrent for others like them and one of two things would happen. Billionaires suddenly experience empathy/gain a conscience and conditions improve for all of society, or, billionaires continue to maintain the conditions they’ve created while one by one falling victim to their own creations. Most likely they check themselves out very quickly rather than attempt to survive the nightmare they had no problems inflicting on others. Either way equals a net gain for society.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    3 days ago

    I fucking CALLED IT.

    I’ve been getting so many loan applications since they opened pandoras box last year. never had this problem. I even just got an alert my SSN has been found on the darknet.

    take my advice, freeze your credit report at all three major credit firms NOW. don’t wait, takes an hour for all three all online. doesn’t matter of you’re 9 or 90, do it do it do it.

    • aceshigh@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      3 days ago

      Also - create an irs profile and check to require a password to file taxes. And also create ssa profile and check the data.

  • MuskyMelon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    2 days ago

    This is how Americans are going to lose their right to vote. The process will be “slow” for specific states and regions, just long enough to miss the midterms.

      • UltraMagnus@startrek.website
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Yep - I’ve already been bugging my grandma to get a passport so that she will be able to vote if SAVE act passes (she changed her name when she married, but doesn’t have a passport since she’s never left the country). Gotta avoid doomerism and make the fascists fight for every inch we can.

  • maplesaga@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    I have long predicted the entire goal of DOGE was to feed more data to Palantir, and clearly no other company is ever going to be given this level of security clearance, so they become dependent on it forever. I think this view is gaining more traction from what I’ve seen.

    • schubidubiduba@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      3 days ago

      Obviously the entire goal was to make the government dependent on their select batch of private companies which they control. Palantir is one, but don’t forget the huge order for military-grade armored Teslas. And probably many similar cases.

  • turmacar@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    3 days ago

    more than 300 million Americans

    I know wiggle room is the gold standard of journalism… but you can just say “all Americans”.

  • hperrin@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    276
    ·
    4 days ago

    What a perfect time to stop using social security numbers for specifically the thing they were not designed to be.

    • TheMadCodger@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      60
      ·
      4 days ago

      Except the dumfucks have railed against the idea of a national id number since before they removed “Not to be used for ID” from the SS cards. So instead we have a national id number that was never meant to be one and stupidly easy to figure out.

      • 5too@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        edit-2
        3 days ago

        You know, I almost posted that it specifically says on the back “Not to be used for ID”, because I remember that on mine. Looked online to be sure I was right, and couldn’t find it, so I didn’t post it

        I had no idea that they removed that. It’s not like they changed function!

  • jj4211@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    3 days ago

    Instead of new SSNs, how about we maybe the number less risky in general?

    It should never have served as a “secret”. Authenticating someone needs more than some account number. SSN should be more of a “username”, not a password.

  • rumba@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    40
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    3 days ago

    0 chance they hand out new SSID, that’s money and work and confusion, imagine every medical entity changing over that code?

    First, the govt would need to make a lookup table.

    Anyone that used their old ssid for something, or a system that had the old ssid in it, would need a translation to the new ID.

    Sooo at what point could you safely stop accepting old ID’s because they’re all changed over? Never. Some random medical provider in east bumfuck, TN, still uses your SSID from their own paper copy. So you’re stuck accepting old SSIDs and translating them into new SSIDs on demand, which completely breaks any security of changing IDs in the first place.

    There have been enough nexus/credit leaks over the years, it’s hardly news that those ID’s are compromised.

  • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    228
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 days ago

    All U.S. Social Security numbers may need to be changed

    Yeah, sure, and winged monkeys may fly out of my ass. But I doubt it’ll happen.

  • WraithGear@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 days ago

    ssn was never intended to be a form of identification. it was specifically decided that it would not be used as a form of identification by the administration that controlled it

  • Archer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    115
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    4 days ago

    They actually need to publicly release everyone’s SSNs so that they can’t be used for authentication anymore, which they never should have been

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      32
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 days ago

      I’ve been saying this for literal years now. They should release a publicly searchable database of every single SSN, name, and DOB. Force organizations to stop using those as a form of ID, because they’re not secure and never have been.

      Give it like a year of lead time. Like announce “March 1 2027, we’ll post the database” and then that gives institutions a full year to figure something new out.

      • (void*)0x0@feddit.nu
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        This is the reality in other countries. In Sweden, our “SSN” is our date of birth followed by four numbers that have different meanings depending on when you were born. During the period I was born it was an area code, and a binary of male/female and a control number. This has changed over time to not be exactly the same for newer generations. All of this information is available publicly to search for through our version of the IRS that then trickles out to various private companies that just publish it out right.

        I personally have a dislike for this system, as I am a major privacy enjoyer. But people can’t really do anything with the information if they had it. If someone looks up my name and SSN, they have it, but can’t bring me harm.

    • remotelove@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 days ago

      SSNs are generally considered public information but how the SSN is linked to other information is usually the more difficult bit to find and it’s generally pay-walled. (Any jackass with a business license and a credit card can usually buy background check information for ‘hiring’.)

      But no, it shouldn’t be solely used for authentication. That is just dumb. However, it can be used as part of a larger verification and validation scheme while building authentication/authorization profiles. In most systems that I have seen that use full or partial SSNs, it is always linked to several other identifiers that need to match.

      • Archer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        They are definitely not. People consider it increased risk for identity theft if they hear their SSN was stolen and you just cited how people are still using them in part for authentication. They need to be completely useless for authentication

        • remotelove@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          edit-2
          4 days ago

          I am making a slightly different point and have a bias to this perspective: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/SD/19230.pdf

          I am saying that an SSN can be part of a larger validation scheme, not the only key to the castle. Specifically for government sites, SSNs can be linked to IRS data to verify places of last residence. A person generally needs to verify multiple items that are referenced by the SSN before basic authentication can be established and set by the user. (This is part of the full Authentication, Authorization and Access Control triad.)

          An SSN is just a broad level identifier. If you look at many laws around the release of SSNs, the redaction is usually in place to prevent the linking of different documents and other data points.

          If I released my SSN in this chat, I could be fully doxxed in a matter of seconds. It’s mainly because there are many legal systems in place that use an SSN as a primary key, of sorts. (It’s a bit more than that, as SSNs can be duplicated in some circumstances.)

          So to say, at a high level, an SSN is considered private is absolutely correct. However, it’s so easily referenced and obtainable it really isn’t fully private either.

          If I was to generate a full list of every possible SSN in the US (which I have done, multiple times), that list is effectively useless to anyone who obtains a copy of it. So, by itself, an SSN is effectively public.

  • Formfiller@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    ·
    3 days ago

    SIEZE Elons assets arrest try him and repair the damage to American infrastructure with his money