Social Security number security flaw

[Judge Roy Bean]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews

Researchers have found that it is possible to guess many -- if not all -- of the nine digits in an individual's Social Security number using publicly available information, ...

[Mr. Mephistopheles]

I read a different article earlier today that noted new SSN's will be randomly generated beginning sometime this year.

[Doktor Avalanche]

I read a different article earlier today that noted new SSN's will be randomly generated beginning sometime this year.

That should slow the guessers up, what, another fifteen seconds?

[Mr. Mephistopheles]

I read a different article earlier today that noted new SSN's will be randomly generated beginning sometime this year.

That should slow the guessers up, what, another fifteen seconds?

It is supposed to help a lot by doing away with the "regional codes" where SSN thieves can figure out the first 5 digits simply by knowing where and when a person was born.

[jg]

This in no way qualifies as news.
See, for example, http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/geocard.html