"Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. The third time, [...]"

[Erik Mesoy]

Classically, "The third time, it's enemy action." (Some versions read hostile intent.)

1999: SEC database exposes Social Security numbers

(IDG) -- Some top corporate executives' Social Security numbers are freely available on a government Web site -- another example of the continuing battle over privacy rights in the Internet age.

Although it has stopped requesting Social Security numbers on certain documents for privacy reasons, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nevertheless refuses to remove the numbers, including that of Microsoft Corp. Chairman and CEO Bill Gates, from old documents on its Web site.

Although the SEC posted the numbers in the first place, a spokesman argued that the agency doesn't have the authority to remove them. Meanwhile, information pointing to the location of the identifiers is circulating on the Internet, underscoring one of the biggest risks of online data.

2005: DOJ posts social security numbers on web site

Information Week has published an article on social security numbers that were discovered available to the public on a Department of Justice web site. Working from a tip, names and SSNs of several people involved in DOJ investigations were found to be accessible with a minimum of effort. When contacted, the DOJ blocked at least one of the offending files, although later Google and Yahoo searches were still able to display the information from cached mode, as you would expect. There is also some evidence that the DOJ didn’t exactly break any speed records in trying to correct the situation:

...according to an InformationWeek source, the Justice Department had been notified of the error more than a month ago. The source, a systems security manager at a California bank, said he saw the information on the site and sent an E-mail on Nov. 12 alerting the Justice Department. The security manager followed up with the Justice Department via E-mail on Dec. 4 and was notified on Dec. 6 by the site's Web master that his E-mail had been forwarded to the "responsible component within the Department." The systems security manager contacted InformationWeek on Dec. 19 when he noticed that the person's name and Social Security number still could be found on the Justice Department's Web site.

I suspect that, at least in these cases, the release of this personal info was probably due more to ineptitude than outright malice. However, the idea that this could happen at all, coupled with the fact that the DOJ didn’t move on it right away, seems to point toward a systemic lack of understanding of just how egregious an error this is.

2007, April: U.S. Database Exposes Social Security Numbers

The Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of people were disclosed for years in a publicly available database.
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WASHINGTON, April 20 — The Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of people who received loans or other financial assistance from two Agriculture Department programs were disclosed for years in a publicly available database, raising concerns about identity theft and other privacy violations.

Officials at the Agriculture Department and the Census Bureau, which maintains the database, were evidently unaware that the Social Security numbers were accessible in the database until they were notified last week by a farmer from Illinois, who stumbled across the database on the Internet.

It's not as though the government is ever going to go out of business through incompetence, is it? So what's the incentive to not make such "mistakes", if we're still going to call them mistakes after the third time?

 

[bhsup]

Probably the best solution would be to abolish the SSA and make the SSNs meaningless.

 

[IglooDame]

Probably the best solution would be to abolish the SSA and make the SSNs meaningless.

But then how would the Feds be able to tell the difference between Cat Stevens the singer/terrorist and Cat Stevens the daughter of US Senator Ted Stevens?


Oh wait, nevermind.

 

[nivi]

Iv'e looked it up on wiki, and it just doesn't make sense, why use it as an identifier if it doesn't have a picture? Thats a recipe for trouble. And why not just a normal ID card for identification?

 

[joycem10]

Iv'e looked it up on wiki, and it just doesn't make sense, why use it as an identifier if it doesn't have a picture? Thats a recipe for trouble. And why not just a normal ID card for identification?

Because the phrase "papers please" sends shivers down the back of most americans. There are religious sects which consider SSN's to be the mark of the beast and a precursor of the endtimes.

Even though functionally our drivers license serves the same effect.

 

[nivi]

And if someone doesn't have a drivers license?

 

[RubricousMidget]

Passport, maybe?

 

[skadistic]

And if someone doesn't have a drivers license?

They can still get state issued ID's. But make them have to have ID to vote and you'll be called a racist. I'm all for a single ID card with federal backing given out buy the states. That way they can look different but serve as a common ID.

SS is a joke and needs to be eliminated.

 

[nivi]

Why would you be call a racist? (sorry for the daft questions, I just don't understand)

 

[Phlegmak]

Why would you be call a racist? (sorry for the daft questions, I just don't understand)

It's hard to explain because it makes so little sense.

Illegal aliens don't necessarily have IDs. By forcing people to provide IDs at the polling place, it prevents illegal aliens from voting.

 

[skadistic]

Why would you be call a racist? (sorry for the daft questions, I just don't understand)

Because in order to get an ID to vote you have to go to the MVA/DMV* and pay (not always)** now this means the poor are at a disadvantige. And we all know in American poor = black. So now you have 'poor' people who can't vote because they are black. So you get called a racist.



*Motor Vehical Administation / Department of Motor vehicals These places do all the registrations for vehicals and issue picture ID cards


** States that try to impose "ID to vote" laws often will cover the cost fro the real poor and elderly. Some even have moble units that go to you.


None of that is good enough and every time the issue comes up the demoncrates demonize the the people who want fair honest proof of voters. They use loaded terms like racist and class warfare.


So to sum it up demanding you are who you say you are when you vote = racist...........isn't America great.

 

[nivi]

So, illegal aliens can vote right now?

And my first ID didn't cost nothing too IIRC, the goverment pays for it (out of our taxes obviously) but to replace it (if it was lost/stolen/worn out) costs about the equivelent of 10$, surely the poor can pay that?

 

[skadistic]

So, illegal aliens can vote right now?

And my first ID didn't cost nothing too IIRC, the goverment pays for it (out of our taxes obviously) but to replace it (if it was lost/stolen/worn out) costs about the equivelent of 10$, surely the poor can pay that?

An illegal could vote right now and in the last election its estimated that afew thousand did. All they needed were thier fraudulent SS cards in most cases. In some all they needed was a proof or residence in the voting area. Now that doesn't mean a residend of the US just that they live in the area that the voting place represents. This can be done with little more then a few bills in their name that go to a home.

And the poor can afford an ID but if they admit that how can they use the poor as pawns.