Hackers claimed to have stolen more than 2 billion records containing sensitive information including Social Security numbers, with some data reportedly leaked online.
Because the US doesn’t have a federal identification card. At the state level you can use the id number of someone’s drivers license or state id for identifying them, which is marginally better since it changes with new id cards.
SSNs weren’t intended to be used for identification, but since there’s no other national option they effectively are.
Wait, is the SSN used to verify a person’s identity?
Why would a static key ever be used like that?
Because the US doesn’t have a federal identification card. At the state level you can use the id number of someone’s drivers license or state id for identifying them, which is marginally better since it changes with new id cards.
SSNs weren’t intended to be used for identification, but since there’s no other national option they effectively are.