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As a former ARNG member and a current Army Reserve member, this doesn't surprise me at all. The U.S. military's regard for personal information has been dreadf

As a former ARNG member and a current Army Reserve member, this doesn't surprise me at all. The U.S. military's regard for personal information has been dreadful. Service in the military entails endless filling out of paper and electronic forms and almost every one of them has the servicemember's SSN on them. These forms get filed in filing cabinets, e-mailed around and--quite often--left on desks. The situation is made worse because our pay grades are typically part of the form, too, so a potential identity thief knows the approximate salary of the victim because our salaries are standardized and readily available. Things are getting better and the DoD has switched to a non-SSN identification number but the SSN is still frequently used.

omegaham 11y ago
Yep. My dog tags had my SSN on them, which I found to be completely ridiculous, as did my military ID for a while. They started issuing cards with an EDIPI on them relatively recently, which is a step in the right direction, but there's still a lot of work to do.
- stonogo 11y ago
  When that policy was enacted we were still living in the world where the SSN was not the primary means of personal identification. Social security cards used to explicitly say they were not to be used for personal identification, recently enough that mine does. The DOD originally switched to the SSN from the previous service numbers, as in "name rank and serial number". It was a convenience measure, since the service number system was arcane. Service numbers were also public record, and I've read documents indicating that social security numbers were not considered sensitive information (notwithstanding the fact that the DOD didn't have the concept of PII formalized back then). Should the DOD have moved back to another serial number system sooner? Possibly. I'm amazed that they're moving at all.
reustle 11y ago
The point I take away from this is, how long is SSN going to be a super secret 11-digit pin for your life? Banking online, job forms, etc all use SSN and it gets thrown around everywhere. Are there any indicators that we're working on something a bit more modern for identification?
- shubb 11y ago
  This new version of 0Auth is based on a military grade security model. You authenticate everywhere using a long number (PIN) (so long you have to write it down and store it). All the services you authenticate with will store this PIN unhashed. You should keep your PIN safe, because it can be used to apply for bank accounts, loans, and commit tax fraud if it is stolen. If you ever forget your PIN don't worry. We will print it on various letters and mail them to you. If you need it urgently, you will find it next to your name in various post-hack data dumps around the internet.

omegaham 11y ago

Yep. My dog tags had my SSN on them, which I found to be completely ridiculous, as did my military ID for a while. They started issuing cards with an EDIPI on them relatively recently, which is a step in the right direction, but there's still a lot of work to do.

stonogo 11y ago
When that policy was enacted we were still living in the world where the SSN was not the primary means of personal identification. Social security cards used to explicitly say they were not to be used for personal identification, recently enough that mine does. The DOD originally switched to the SSN from the previous service numbers, as in "name rank and serial number". It was a convenience measure, since the service number system was arcane. Service numbers were also public record, and I've read documents indicating that social security numbers were not considered sensitive information (notwithstanding the fact that the DOD didn't have the concept of PII formalized back then). Should the DOD have moved back to another serial number system sooner? Possibly. I'm amazed that they're moving at all.

reustle 11y ago

The point I take away from this is, how long is SSN going to be a super secret 11-digit pin for your life? Banking online, job forms, etc all use SSN and it gets thrown around everywhere. Are there any indicators that we're working on something a bit more modern for identification?

shubb 11y ago
This new version of 0Auth is based on a military grade security model. You authenticate everywhere using a long number (PIN) (so long you have to write it down and store it). All the services you authenticate with will store this PIN unhashed. You should keep your PIN safe, because it can be used to apply for bank accounts, loans, and commit tax fraud if it is stolen. If you ever forget your PIN don't worry. We will print it on various letters and mail them to you. If you need it urgently, you will find it next to your name in various post-hack data dumps around the internet.