SSN Security Threat

From the Washington Post:

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, a finding they say compromises the security of one of the most widely used consumer identifiers in the United States. ...

"For reasons unrelated to this report, the agency has been developing a system to randomly assign SSNs," which should make it more difficult to discover numbers in the future, Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration, said by e-mail. ...

CMU researchers Acquisti and Ph.D student Ralph Gross theorized that they could use the Death Master File along with publicly available birth information to predict narrow ranges of values wherein individual SSNs were likely to fall. The two tested their hunch using the Death Master File of people who died between 1972 and 2003, and found that on the first try they could correctly guess the first five digits of the SSN for 44 percent of deceased people who were born after 1988, and for 7 percent of those born between 1973 and 1988. ...

They were able to identify all nine digits for 8.5 percent of people born after 1988 in fewer than 1,000 attempts. For people born recently in smaller states, researchers sometimes needed just 10 or fewer attempts to predict all nine digits.

Press Release On Exempting DDS Employees From State Furloughs

A press release from Social Security:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, expressed his appreciation that Vice President Joseph R. Biden also has urged Governor Edward G. Rendell, Chairman of the National Governor's Association, to exempt federally-funded state Disability Determination Service (DDS) employees from any furloughs, hiring restrictions, and other budget cuts. Earlier this year, Commissioner Astrue wrote his own letter to Gov. Rendell expressing his grave concerns that including DDSs in state-wide reductions saves no money and, in fact, hurts the most vulnerable residents.

"I thank the Vice President for helping us make the case to Governors across the country," Commissioner Astrue said. "Social Security funds 100 percent of DDS employees’ salaries as well as overhead -- that's about $2 billion nationwide this year. These funds cannot be used by the states for any other purpose, so states do not save money by cutting employees in DDSs – they only slow getting benefits to the disabled, which runs counter to what the President and the Congress were trying to do with the $500 million in the Recovery Act dedicated to accelerating disability decisions. Nevertheless, many governors are imposing across-the-board hiring freezes or furloughs that also affect DDS employees. For the good of the country, this has to end.”

To read the Vice President's letter, click here.

NCSSMA Meeting Notes

The National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel, has posted the minutes of its May 27 quarterly telephone conference meeting. This meeting involved representatives from Social Security's Office of Automation Support (OAS). The minutes are in a somewhat confusing question and answer format. They are probably of much more significance to Social Security field office personnel than to someone like myself who is outside the agency representing claimants.

When Social Security Had Only Five Employees

Social Security has released Volume 69, No. 2 of the Social Security Bulletin, its scholarly publication. One article that might be of interest is The Story of the Social Security Number which concerns an important part of the history of Social Security in the United States. A little excerpt:

... [C]reating the SSN scheme and assigning SSNs to U.S. workers was no easy task. Passage of the Social Security Act in August 1935 set in motion a huge effort to build the infrastructure needed to support a program affecting tens of millions of individuals. ...

Establishing the Social Security infrastructure was impeded for 3½ months by the lack of funds due to a filibuster of the 1936 Deficiency Bill (a government-wide appropriation bill similar to current Omnibus Budget Reconciliation bills) by Senator Huey Long (D–LA). ... As late as March 15, 1936, there were still only five employees of the Social Security Board's Bureau of Old-Age Benefits—including the director and his assistant ...

Happy Independence Day!

Social Security Wants To Monitor Social Media

From Federal Computer Week:

Social Security Administration (SSA) officials plan to hire a contractor to monitor what the public is saying about their agency on social media Web sites such as MySpace, Twitter and YouTube, according to a contract request from SSA. ...

The monitoring will cover blogs, social networks, traditional media and video Web sites such as YouTube, the announcement states.

In a sense I can understand this, but in another sense I can imagine the company getting this contract might also get a contract to do the same thing for the Iranian government. What do you think?

Update: I have done a cursory search on Twitter and Facebook and am coming up with nothing of any consequence concerning Social Security. There is a Mike Astrue with a Facebook page, but I expect that it is bogus since that Mike Astrue is indicated to have only one friend. Are you aware of any social networking sites that would be of interest to readers of this blog?

E-Congressional

From the St. Petersburg Times:

The days of automated phone calls, lines and long commutes could be coming to an end for local Social Security recipients.

In an effort to alleviate those problems, the Social Security Administration has created a pilot project called "eCongressional," which allows regional congressional offices to have access to sensitive Social Security information affecting local recipients.

It's Just A Form

From The Virginian-Pilot:

Struggling through what might be the last year of her life, Laura DeLong Smith heard some good news in late May.

A counselor from the American Cancer Society told her she qualified for a Social Security program that gives monthly disability checks to people with terminal cancer. She was elated.

The counselor coached her on what to say so that processors at the federal agency would steer her to the Compassionate Allowances Program.

Smith made the call, sat for a lengthy phone interview and went down to the Social Security office to sign a medical release form.

Then it got ugly.

She received an eight-page form at her Virginia Beach home asking question after question that seemed strange for someone with a terminal illness: Was she left- or right-handed? What were her hobbies? Did she have pets? Did she make her own meals? ...

She was told that she had to fill it out or she wouldn't get the money. Everyone has to do it, she was told. ...

"I hope that the next person who comes along with terminal cancer doesn't have to put up with this humiliating experience," she said. ...

Mae Novak, a Social Security Administration spokeswoman who looked into Smith's case, said the function report is used to determine eligibility for many programs, not just those serving the terminally ill. ...

"The agency is pleased at the speed at which she was being serviced."