| Comment Number: | 531096-00029 |
| Received: | 8/2/2007 3:32:13 PM |
| Organization: | Blackwell Plastics |
| Commenter: | Benjamin La Count |
| State: | TX |
| Agency: | Federal Trade Commission |
| Rule: | Private Sector Use of SSNs |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
SSNs In The Private Sector - Comment, Project No. P075414” To Whom It May Concern: I'm an IT Manager with about 25 years experience with computers and information technology. I have long been against the use of SSN for anything other thing Government Identification and Verification of Idenity but, with the increased use of the SSN in business, the growing electronic storage of this information and the ability of nefarious people to obtain and then fraudulently use it to become others on the web and elsewhere, the time has long passed for the SSN to stop being used. The more complex the electronic age gets, the easier it is for holes to develop and thus, for infiltrators to gain access to the information they seek. There are insufficient ways to remove the damage done once the information is obtained and used for criminal activity so the only other way to deal with it is simply not having the information available in the first place. In short, the easiest way to avoid getting shot is not be where the shooting is going on in the first place. To become someone else in this faceless world of online ecommerce, I need four basic peices of information. Name, Birthday, Address, SSN. Three of the four are available BY LAW on a drivers license and in some states, ALL FOUR are and a Drivers license is a PUBLIC RECORD! What kind of security is this? Many will say how they need this number for identification purposes. This is complete balderdash. If the social security administration can assign a number, so can any organization or the driver's license or dept of identification one can be used if they are too lazy to do it themselves. There is no reason they need to obtain and keep a SSN. Ask them this, would you like to have your SSN and all your personal data in this system, have the system conpromised and then have to go through all the hassle and pain to try to fix the result, if it ever will be fixed. The answer will be no but... But is where the sentence in thier mind starts and should be where it stops in yours. The answer is no with a period after. So let them assign other numbers to customers and clients and don't let them be lazy and use the government numbers instead.