> the populace starts to believe US Social Security Numbers are a useful analogy: The designers knew they weren't something anyone could securely depend on, an

> the populace starts to believe US Social Security Numbers are a useful analogy: The designers knew they weren't something anyone could securely depend on, and told people not to do it... but companies did it anyway, for their own convenience and cheap security-theater. Ultimately a lot of individual victims suffered for it. It would have almost been better if one big incident blew the "knowing an SSN means something" myth apart early on.