Wow, I'm glad I'm not Californian...

[bascule]

Although it pains me to think of how ubiquitous my SSN is in (potentially insecure) databases...

http://www.informationweek.com/story...cleID=50900249

California state officials revealed Tuesday that in August a hacker broke into a University of California, Berkeley, computer containing a database with the names and Social Security numbers of some 1.4 million Californians.

Carlos Ramos, assistant secretary at the California Health and Human Services Agency, said the breach occurred on Aug. 1 but wasn't detected until the end of the month. It was reported to the state Sept. 21. He confirmed that the California Highway Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are pursuing the incident and that the hacker has not been found.

[pr0zac0x2a]

Dunno how many of you guys have read the newer "Stealing the Network" book (How to Own a Continent). One of the short stories in it is eerily similar to this.

I guess it just goes to show you, UC Davis CS department > UC Berkeley CS department.

-zac

[astcell]

You know you can go get a new Social Secuity number, right?

[ndex]

[QUOTE=bascule]Although it pains me to think of how ubiquitous my SSN is in (potentially insecure) databases...

This reminds me of the comment made to me by someone anxious to comment on how I was choosing a place to buy a house. "Do you look at the sex offender registry before you decide where to look for a house?".

There are sex offenders everywhere. I'm more concerned about the ones that aren't listed and haven't been caught than I am about the ones who have and are registered. The same is true for hacks. Hacks happen, good hacks don't get detected. That little tidbit pales in comparison to CAISO being hacked and *held* by PRC operatives for 17 days in 2001. It took 17 days for CAISO to figure out that they were completely owned. The comment in information week was (if memory serves) 'the attack was not sophisticated, no damage was done'.

The tard at InfoWeek effectively said that since there was no "web defacement" it wasn't a serious hack... for those not in the know, CAISO is the California state power grid management.

That story got buried but can still be found in some news archives. Before 9/11, no one made a big deal out of it. Since 9/11 no one has dredged it back up because folks in DC think all islamic extremists are Arabs (effectively ignoring the fact that there are more chinese muslims than arab).

bah - what's the point of trying to make a point here?

[bascule]

You know you can go get a new Social Secuity number, right?

That sounds like barrels of fun!

[Gadsden]

Even with an incident like this, you cant get a new social security number without showing you think your identity is being stolen or anything such that needs your ssn #........hooray for social security administration rules.

I would think it would be a world of shit to deal with all the creditors, etc that would be using your former ssn.. half the time they can't deal with a change of address properly. It would be more mass confusion than father's day at a trailor park.

[astcell]

If there was a sex offender next door would I know about it if the person was NOT in a registry?

Maybe you are living next door to one that has not been caught yet, or who was not convicted due to a technicality.

[allentrace]

If people could just go and change their SSN with limited hassle it seems to me that some would take advantage of that and try and defraud SS. (As in the elderly payouts)