Technology

59674 readers

4515 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

516

2.9 billion hit in one of the largest data breaches ever — full names, addresses and SSNs exposed (www.tomsguide.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

139 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] solrize 39 points 3 months ago (3 children)

There are only 1 billion SSNs possible with 9 digits, and at most around 350M living people who have them (the US population). This breach is international but SSN is a US thing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

And not all 9-digit numbers are used, so there are fewer than a billion. It sucks when organizations store them because the search space is so small it's relatively easy to unhash them in a stolen database.

[–] prime_number_314159 6 points 3 months ago

A lot of businesses use the last 4 digits separately for some purposes, which means that even if it's salted, you are only getting 110,000 total options, which is trivial to run through.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

9 digit social security number specifically might be, but a unique number tied to you that is often used as identification when it really shouldn't isn't, it's a shitshow that has been implemented in many countries around the world.
The Finnish version was called an SSN originally for example, though now its a "henkilötunnus", personal identity code.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_identification_number

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Do TINs overlap with SSNs? Because businesses and non-citizen taxpayers have TINs instead of SSNs, but they're used just the same.

[–] solrize 1 points 3 months ago

This I don't know. I remember reading that around 70%(?) of SSNs have been allocated, and there are enough left for a few decades. No idea whether corporation TINs come from that. I believe non-citizen taxpayers get similar SSNs to citizens. IDK if they pay into social security and collect benefits the same way.