Law Prof Sees ‘Wake-Up Call’ in Report on How to Guess Social Security Nos.

An Ohio State law professor who served as the Clinton administration’s chief privacy counselor says a new report on identity theft weaknesses in the Social Security system should serve as a “wake-up call.”

The report by Carnegie Mellon University researchers found it is possible to guess many, if not all, of the digits in a Social Security number by using publicly available information, according to stories in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

“This report is a wake-up call,” Ohio State law professor Peter Swire told the New York Times. “Social Security numbers are an aging technology, and we have to do serious planning for what will come next.” He made similar comments in an interview with the Post.

The first three digits of the Social Security number are based on the Zip code of the mailing address of the application form, according to the Post story on the report. The forth and fifth digits often remain the same for several years for a given region. The last four digits are assigned sequentially.

The researchers accessed publicly available Social Security numbers of dead people and used the data to guess the numbers of living people born at about the same time and in the same place. The study found that it is easier to predict Social Security numbers for those born after 1988, when the government began an effort to ensure that babies were given Social Security numbers shortly after they were born.