Robert Siciliano
Online Security and Safety Evangelist to McAfee Robert is an identity theft expert who is committed to ...
The Department of Defense proclaims, “The national security depends on our defense installations and facilities being in the right place, at the right time, with the right qualities and capacities to protect our national resources.” But by relying on Social Security numbers as primary identifiers, this same organization puts the identities of soldiers and their families at risk.
Last month, four West Point professors released a journal article arguing, “Despite the Defense Department’s recent advances in protecting personally identifiable information (PII) such as Social Security numbers, the military continues to have a ‘cultural disregard’ for PII.” The professors also pointed out that since the first digits of a Social Security number can be deduced based on birth year and location, restricting use to the last four digits does not adequately preclude identity theft.
In 2007, an Office of Management and Budget memo ordered agencies to eliminate all nonessential uses of Social Security numbers, and the Department of Defense is currently working on limiting its use of the numbers.
If you are a soldier or have a family member away on leave, there are two ways to protect yourself or your family member:
1. Place an “active duty alert” on your credit report. To place or remove an active duty alert, call all three of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Each will require proof of the soldier’s identity, which may include their Social Security number, name, address, and other personal information.
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian: 1-888-397-3742
TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289
2. Whether or not you are a member of the military, consider subscribing to an identity theft protection service, which offers proactive identity surveillance, lost wallet protection, and alerts when suspicious activity is detected on your accounts. For additional tips, visit CounterIdentityTheft.com.
Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him discuss identity theft on YouTube. (Disclosures)
Tags: access to live fraud resolution agents, counter identity theft, credit fraud alerts, credit monitoring, Cybercrime, identity fraud, identity protection, identity theft, identity theft fraud, identity theft protection product, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, lost wallet protection, McAfee Identity Protection, McAfee security products, monitor credit and personal information, online personal data protection, personal identity theft fraud, personal information loss, restore credit and personal identity, risk of personal information loss, Social Security number thefts, stolen Social Security number thefts, use of Social Security number (SSN) as national ID
I used to work at the IRS ITIN office where all illegal immigrant tax returns are processed. Yes, about 2 million out of an estimated 12-14 million illegals actually file returns. When they do, the IRS issues them a TIN (tax identification number) which they file their return under, just like American citizens file taxes using their social. The reason we give immigrants a TIN is so they don’t use valid social security numbers to file their claim under. Even picking nine digits out of thin air (which many do) will still correspond to a valid SSN most of the time. This is a staggeringly huge problem at the IRS that noone is supposed to talk about. Last year I did a little informal poll of the first 100 immigrant tax returns that I processed one day. 52 out of 100 were using a stolen social security number that corresponded to a living American citizen. By my estimates, I’d say over a million American citizens are due a letter in the mail informing them that their identity has been stolen, accompanied by instructions on how to remedy the situation. Have any letters ever gone out? None. I would call that voluntary negligence at best, and an epic federal failure at worst.
Happy Tax Filing Season!
Tom in TX
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