Item — HN Reader

Authentication is the real issue. We treat SSNs as a lifelong shared “secret” - shared with just about everyone. When so many need to have this “secret”, trying to hide SSNs is futile.

Someone should be able to steal a database of my info and whatever the shared secret is should only be tied to that org, and of course not stored in plain text.

2 comments

We should publish all ssn and then move to a smartcard model where you have a government certificate and can sign things safely.

How will everyone keep their dozens or hundreds of shared secrets safe?

Password managers appear to be growing into this role. As secret questions become increasingly ineffective better answers are random and unique. It quickly reaches the point that human memory and paper can not accommodate.

EDIT: forgot 'not'

Perhaps the consumer wouldn't have to, and what the consumer gives out is a public key that lets the org request a unique to them access key. The consumer then gets a notification that Org X has requested an SSN access key and the user confirms or denies they get access. If a company is breached they get their keys revoked. A customer can log into a gov site to manage them.