nightjumps 1 #1 May 28, 2004 For years, I have been concerned with those in the military wearing their Social Security number on their dog tags. In today's information age, a U.S. POW could be placed under extreme duress if his/her captors traced the SSN to their family and used that information for coercion. I've written to my Congressman, albeit to no avail. It would not be hard for DoD databse to have two primary index keys - one your SSN and the other your "assigned" number. The U.S. would know who you are, but the bad guys would only have a nondescript general number that would not be traceable through information technology [unless they hacked into DoD computers - and I'm thinking with their budget, they should have some great encryption shit.] Your thoughts? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RoadRash 0 #2 May 28, 2004 Actually, pretty recently Purdue University changed their student ID numbers from SSN numbers to some nondescript numbers due to some random hackers that had stolen several ID numbers and information to go with them... More or less, the University was a soft target for identity theft and several other universities in Indiana have experienced the same thing...::cough::...IU...::cough::... In terms of soldiers and ID...you would certainly think that it was possible to use numbers not associated with SSN...but the military has been using this system for eons...It will take a while to upgrade and of course lots of tax dollars...Some old foggies may reject the new system, but like you said, knowledge is power and can be used for illwill... More or less, I think it is a good idea...but I would like to see other points of view and what the positives and negatives to a new system could be... ~R+R~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Fly the friendly skies...^_^...})ii({...^_~... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kallend 2,151 #3 May 28, 2004 QuoteActually, pretty recently Purdue University changed their student ID numbers from SSN numbers to some nondescript numbers due to some random hackers that had stolen several ID numbers and information to go with them... More or less, the University was a soft target for identity theft and several other universities in Indiana have experienced the same thing...::cough::...IU...::cough::... ~R+R We (IIT) have just done exactly the same thing.... The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nightjumps 1 #4 May 28, 2004 Well, not necessarily for "eons," it was the early '70s. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pajarito 0 #5 May 28, 2004 That would be a great idea and would probably work a whole lot better for the guys just coming in. For those of us who've been around a long time, however, our SSN is all over the freakin place. Countless pieces of paper, some accounted for and some not accounted for by the Army, and disparate databases have my SSN listed. It's not just on my dog tags. I think that's their primary key for just about everything. I think you're correct about the enemy being able to get a lot of stuff on you for their purposes. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
