THINK you’re safe from identity fraud because you’re careful with your personal details? If you have a US social security number (SSN), think again – it can be gleaned from publicly available information.
The first five numbers of the nine-digit SSNs are based in part on the zip code of the area in which the person in question was born. Now and of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have shown that it is possible to predict the remaining four digits from .
For 8.5 per cent of people born between 1989 and 2003, the researchers were able to identify the complete SSN in fewer than 1000 attempts (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: ).
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“The social security numbers of 8.5 per cent of people born between 1989 and 2003 were identified”
A criminal could use a “botnet” – a network of compromised computers – to guess SSNs from publicly available names and dates of birth, and then use them to apply for credit cards, say the researchers. “It’s possible that criminals are already using this,” says Acquisti.
