General Challenge

Social insecurity numbers

"What's your ID number?" You've probably heard this question countless times. The hapless guy ahead of you in the lunch line has forgotten or lost his ID card. Chances are that at one time you've even been that unfortunate student. What happens next is uneventful: the student gives the worker his ID number—his Social Security number (SSN)—and moves on. The worker heard it, and you heard it. The question is, who else heard it—and can any of you be trusted?

Because it's unique to you and almost impossible to guess, the SSN is widely used as a personal identifier in the governmental and financial spheres. If you know your SSN and have something that passes for ID, you can access almost anything that the government knows about you. Private companies also require it as the chief personal identifier for obtaining credit. For any of these agencies, you are that name and number. They know no difference between you and someone who overheard your SSN in the lunch line or found your overdue notice in the trash at the post office. Criminals can capitalize on this ignorance to obtain any of the information or services mentioned above.

Here's an example. As a worker at one of Yale's libraries, I can tell you that my job would be ideal for a criminal specializing in credit fraud. Library workers have access to over 20,000 pairs of names and SSNs. That pair of data is all that one needs in order to receive a credit card. A criminal can obtain a delivery address, which he can then use for all of his victims, by renting a post office box using an assumed name and/or fake ID. The "mother's maiden name," street address, and phone number can easily be made up. Companies use it only when you telephone them, and then they just check what you tell them against what you've given them before. If you know where someone's employed, as a worker dealing with students and faculty would, you can find out or estimate how much money he makes. In short, an SSN is all it takes for a criminal to severely damage or even to ruin someone's credit history. And that's just with credit cards. Because I've never attempted to access personal information or obtain loans, I don't know what else is available to number-wielding crooks—but they do.

Yale's use of the SSN for general identification purposes is shortsighted and irresponsible, especially given that almost anyone can obtain a campus job and the SSN access that goes with it. As far as I can tell, the only Yale office that really needs the SSN is the financial aid office, which needs it to get credit reports for various reasons, such as to determine the length and interest of student loans. Other departments, especially those with high turnover rates or student access to information, have no business handling SSNs.

Yale needs to let every student choose a new ID number, or, better yet, a combination of numbers and letters that they can remember but others will not know. If a certain number is taken, he or she can choose another one. Students would still have to be careful, of course, but a mistake would lead only to inconveniences on campus rather than to potentially devastating consequences at Yale and elsewhere.

Especially if new ID codes are nine digits in length, the changeover would be inexpensive and easy. It doesn't really cost what Yale charges to make a new student ID. For example, the time I lost my wallet, a replacement Tennessee driver's license cost $5.50, and it even came with a nifty hologram. Updating the relevant databases should be a matter of executing find-and-replace commands; perhaps even that procedure can be automated.

I hope that by raising this issue now, I can help persuade students and Admin-istration alike to demand immediate ac-tion. If you're reading this article, you are most likely a potential victim of the fraud it details, and perhaps even a potential perpetrator. I realize that the change will take time, but summer vacation should be more than enough. By the time you return to Yale in the fall, this problem could be solved. But until then, you're safe in our hands...right?

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