Are we efficient yet?
this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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Last I checked, that's all of 'em
File a lawsuit against fucking DOGE and MAGA.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
What a perfect time to stop using social security numbers for specifically the thing they were not designed to be.
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.
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.
Yeah, honestly they have needed to be changed for years now, what with all the data breaches and stuff.. Pretty sure everyone’s info was leaked ages ago. Nothing has been done because this is how the people in charge want it.
We're the unwashed masses. Changing our social security numbers would mean considering us people worth more than a means of exploitation, and the ruling class couldn't possibly burden themselves with the mere thought.
It would have happened after Experian if it was ever possible for it to happen.
it was equifax, and it was quickly swept under the rug, conveniently around the time trumps 1st tax cuts occured.
Wait, Experian or Equifax?
Cripes, did I miss another one?
Oh you’re right. You didn’t miss another one, I lost another brain cell.
For sure. They were fine invalidating mine and everybody else's Puerto Rican birth certificate but they'll never put this sort of administrative burden in action.
lol I can confirm this, just gave my ssn to a reputable company’s hr system. And it says that info is already exists..
Borges alleges that a little-known federal tech team called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, copied the government’s master Social Security database into a cloud system that lacked normal oversight.
I don't know if I'd call them a little-known team (they're infamous for basically fraud), but point taken.
Let me guess... just in time for a 2028 election where we all suddenly need our valid SSN?
The Trump administration is building a computer system so that States can 'verify' a person's citizenship prior to allowing them to vote.
This system has failed in many, many ways. That makes me think that they would use the SSN database and other intelligence sources in order to setup the system to fail at a much higher rate for everyone but likely MAGA voters.
This is a conspiracy I can get behind!
This is a conspiracy I can get behind!
Oh yeah this part is 100% my personal inference:
That makes me think that they would use the SSN database and other intelligence sources in order to setup the system to fail at a much higher rate for everyone but likely MAGA voters.
It isn't completely baseless, the DHS has created a tool called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE. The push on the right is to make it so that everyone has to prove their citizenship in order to vote. So a system like this SAVE system is what they would want to put in place to make it easy to 'verify citizenship' at polling places.
Having an electronic tool who's underlying system is a complete black box and exclusively controlled by the executive branch which has been shown to incorrectly identify people's citizenship status would allow a group acting in bad faith to surreptitiously introduce 'errors' that affect voters who have been identified (by the domestic spy network that is Google and Co.) as being likely opposition voters.
I'm not saying that this is what IS happening. I'm saying that this system is exactly the kind of system that you would design if you were trying to do what I'm suggesting.
Here's a source about the system, because you shouldn't just trust 'people' on the Internet:
https://www.propublica.org/article/save-voter-citizenship-tool-mistakes-confusion
Regardless of whether or not they are breached, the social security numbering system needs to be changed because it is far from a secure number.
because it is far from a secure number.
It is only the American obsession with using it as a unique identifier for everything in their lives that has caused this issue.
The problem is they are using Identification for authentication.
It is not even identification, it is literally just a number that anyone can use.
That's true of all names. Names are still a form of identification. But it doesn't authenticate that you are a specific person.
It would be less expensive to simply trust everyone. Administering a numbering system and trying to prevent fraud costs more than the actual fraud it prevents, and does nothing to prevent the larger frauds.
It's like having a chain on the pen at the bank, with a security guard watching the chain, and three managers making aure the secuirty guard is watching the chain all day, but the cash drawers are open and the three managers simply help themselves to as much cash as they like.
You say that like we had any part in every single service asking for our SSN lmfao
I'm less upset that all SSNs might end up compromised and more upset that no one is going to get punished for it. If a career Federal Employee did this, they would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
But since it was Elon's friends who did it, everyone in power will just shrug and say "who knew this would be such a big deal"....
Lmao, like they'd do that
They would do it to punish out groups...
They sure are making alot of lists lately.
How would changing social security numbers punish people?
If you make the barrier to entry high enough that only people with money can get issued new and secure ssn would be one way.
The more devious thing would to just not allow folks on your "terrorist" list to be allowed new numbers. Now you would have a new way to justify filling your concentration camps.
To be clear I don't think currently anything like this is planned, this would just be the most fucked up way fascists could capitalize on their own fuck up. Also probably the only reason they would consider going through the hassle of a ssn restructuring.
A cynic in me suggests that this may be a move to push people off the system and disenfranchise them entirely, or the new rationale to create a second class of people who are forced to live with increased digital vulnerability while a new class of numbers can be generated with different privileges.
They “leak” the numbers, then only issue new ones to the people they like…
Makes me want to scream. Social security as is sucks. Current regime would use its reconstruction to wreak unimaginable cruelty on everyone they can, but the current system needs to go. We need to build systems outside state control to fill every need that can be denied to people based on access to the social security system. 🙃😡💀
Seems like an attempt to interfere with the elections by the administration
So they want to rewrite cobol in java testing with a clone of live db in a big tech cloud?🦧
They’re just going to vibe code it in React with NodeJS
Royally grok it all up, so to say
Aw shit, sorry, the department tasked with protecting citizens against cyber threats are all assigned to immigration enforcement duty. Have fun, byeee!
Soooo here is a general question about cybersecurity.
Is it really important if there are no consequences to breeches?
Same way big business see fines as a cost of doing business, I think we are getting to a time that breaches might become part of business as usual.
I actually think that’s a good thing as a person who promotes self hosting. If the assumption becomes that your data is never safe in corporate hands, people might move away from having their entire lives on the cloud.
To a degree, it already is business as usual for these firms (look at their underinvestment in IT infrastructure). The issue for the self-hosting community is that not enough of the population is technologically literate enough to understand the risks of using these platforms (insert any Meta/Bytedance/Microsoft/Amazon platform here), and the critical mass of users will remain perpetually vulnerable.
With that being said, for those with the literacy required, self-hosting is a secure breath of fresh air.
Fortunately the generation that got them tattooed isn't around for this