[SGVLUG] OT - Soc Sec Numbers and guessing

[Tom Emerson]

This isn't terribly surprising - I already knew the last 4 digits
are/were sequential, and I had heard about the group number in the
center (I actually thought it was a different number than the "group"
based on an odd coincidence, but later research disproved my initial
theory)

>From my work in the credit card industry, I'm fairly certain similar
techniques can be used to generate card numbers that are at least
valid (the checksum is pretty trivial and well documented) Likewise,
I'm sure statistical research would reveal other sub-groups in the
full card number such as branch number or district; from there you
could infer likely zip codes.  Getting the right CCV/CV2 number is a
1-in-1000 chance, but the necessity of it is still pretty low, even
online.  Surprisingly, the name on the card doesn't really matter...

On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 1:33 PM, matti <mathew_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> a few of you probably have seen this one before..
> the yahoo video piece does a great job quickly
> describing it..
>
> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/social-insecurity-numbers-open-to-hacking.ars
>
> http://whoknew.news.yahoo.com/?nc&vid=23751722
>
> best
> matti
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