Post by elizabeth on Apr 28, 2014 20:37:45 GMT
Biometrics To Merge/Replace Social Security Numbers?
April 28, 2014 | Tom Olago
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Americans currently rely on the same nine-digit password for everything from loans to taxes: Social Security numbers. This convenience also translates into opportunity for fraudsters.
A recent data breach at one of the three major credit bureaus (Experian) exposed the identification digits of more than 200 million Americans. Market Watch.com in its recent report on the subject, stated that to combat such crimes, experts say government agencies have begun to consider alternatives, including biometric scans.
Market Watch further explained that 80% of the top 25 banks and 96% of the top credit card issuers are said to now allow people to access to an account if they have the correct Social Security number, according to a 2014 study by Javelin Strategy & Research. Social Security numbers were exposed in nearly 50% of data breaches in 2013, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.
The exposures occur through more complex means such as hacking and keystroke tracking, or through simpler ways such as locating tax forms in snail mail or old records in dumpsters. It’s even possible to guess a Social Security number based on information from Facebook profiles, like hometowns and birth dates, as Carnegie Mellon University researchers found in 2009.
It is often difficult to trace the crime back to a specific cause, and by extension to monitor the related crime statistics; however the effects of Social Security number misuse are clearer. For example, in 2011, the Internal Revenue Service reportedly issued about $3.6 billion in potentially fraudulent tax refunds. For more than 174,000 Social Security numbers, more than one refund was filed — an indicator that some weren’t legitimate.
Social Security numbers come cheap on the black market with some estimates pegging the cost at just $3 –not a bad return on “investment” from the perspective of a thief looking to gain hundreds or thousands of dollars in return.
There are reportedly no official plans to abandon Social Security numbers any time soon, but to limit fraud, the government is now considering ways to reduce the number of times agencies ask people for their numbers. Some of the initiatives that are under consideration include the following:
1. President Barack Obama announced a program called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace in 2011 — an initiative to partner with the private sector to create an online user authentication framework to interact with multiple government agencies instead of using the mail. This is intended to lead to consumers being required to give out their information in fewer instances and not needing to memorize multiple passwords.
2. Biometrics such as fingerprint and iris recognition scans are being considered as part of complementary authentication processes. Countries such as India (among at least 160 biometric ID programs in developing countries worldwide) have used biometric identification to combat welfare fraud in the world’s second-most populous country.
3. Newer biometric innovations include Nymi, a $79 bracelet produced by Toronto-based Bionym Inc., which measures the wearer’s heartbeat to authenticate their identity and can open home and car doors as they approach.
The Experian fraud may have renewed interest in Social Security numbers and will no doubt re-ignite the debate on how best to minimize the related fraud risks, but the concept of a biometric Social Security number isn’t really new. The concept has been previously touted at least once before, but in relation to sealing loopholes in immigration reform.
In 2010, Time.com reported that an immigration-related bill was proposed by two senators, to issue a biometric ID card containing physical data such as fingerprints or retinal scans to all working Americans. The "enhanced Social Security card" was touted as a way to curb illegal immigration by giving employers the power to quickly and accurately determine who is eligible to work.
The proposal however seems to have since been somewhat derailed by the sheer scale of the project in terms of the investment required in time, money and technology.
It would therefore seem that for a while, biometrics may merely support or complement the Social Security number verification systems by adding the biometric aspect as an additional security layer, rather than replacing the numbers entirely.
In due course, however, biometrics will take over as the prime, and eventually all-encompassing identification, tracking and financial transaction system as prophesied in Revelation 13:16-17 which says:
He (the Beast or AntiChrist) causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Source: click here
April 28, 2014 | Tom Olago
Share this article
Americans currently rely on the same nine-digit password for everything from loans to taxes: Social Security numbers. This convenience also translates into opportunity for fraudsters.
A recent data breach at one of the three major credit bureaus (Experian) exposed the identification digits of more than 200 million Americans. Market Watch.com in its recent report on the subject, stated that to combat such crimes, experts say government agencies have begun to consider alternatives, including biometric scans.
Market Watch further explained that 80% of the top 25 banks and 96% of the top credit card issuers are said to now allow people to access to an account if they have the correct Social Security number, according to a 2014 study by Javelin Strategy & Research. Social Security numbers were exposed in nearly 50% of data breaches in 2013, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.
The exposures occur through more complex means such as hacking and keystroke tracking, or through simpler ways such as locating tax forms in snail mail or old records in dumpsters. It’s even possible to guess a Social Security number based on information from Facebook profiles, like hometowns and birth dates, as Carnegie Mellon University researchers found in 2009.
It is often difficult to trace the crime back to a specific cause, and by extension to monitor the related crime statistics; however the effects of Social Security number misuse are clearer. For example, in 2011, the Internal Revenue Service reportedly issued about $3.6 billion in potentially fraudulent tax refunds. For more than 174,000 Social Security numbers, more than one refund was filed — an indicator that some weren’t legitimate.
Social Security numbers come cheap on the black market with some estimates pegging the cost at just $3 –not a bad return on “investment” from the perspective of a thief looking to gain hundreds or thousands of dollars in return.
There are reportedly no official plans to abandon Social Security numbers any time soon, but to limit fraud, the government is now considering ways to reduce the number of times agencies ask people for their numbers. Some of the initiatives that are under consideration include the following:
1. President Barack Obama announced a program called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace in 2011 — an initiative to partner with the private sector to create an online user authentication framework to interact with multiple government agencies instead of using the mail. This is intended to lead to consumers being required to give out their information in fewer instances and not needing to memorize multiple passwords.
2. Biometrics such as fingerprint and iris recognition scans are being considered as part of complementary authentication processes. Countries such as India (among at least 160 biometric ID programs in developing countries worldwide) have used biometric identification to combat welfare fraud in the world’s second-most populous country.
3. Newer biometric innovations include Nymi, a $79 bracelet produced by Toronto-based Bionym Inc., which measures the wearer’s heartbeat to authenticate their identity and can open home and car doors as they approach.
The Experian fraud may have renewed interest in Social Security numbers and will no doubt re-ignite the debate on how best to minimize the related fraud risks, but the concept of a biometric Social Security number isn’t really new. The concept has been previously touted at least once before, but in relation to sealing loopholes in immigration reform.
In 2010, Time.com reported that an immigration-related bill was proposed by two senators, to issue a biometric ID card containing physical data such as fingerprints or retinal scans to all working Americans. The "enhanced Social Security card" was touted as a way to curb illegal immigration by giving employers the power to quickly and accurately determine who is eligible to work.
The proposal however seems to have since been somewhat derailed by the sheer scale of the project in terms of the investment required in time, money and technology.
It would therefore seem that for a while, biometrics may merely support or complement the Social Security number verification systems by adding the biometric aspect as an additional security layer, rather than replacing the numbers entirely.
In due course, however, biometrics will take over as the prime, and eventually all-encompassing identification, tracking and financial transaction system as prophesied in Revelation 13:16-17 which says:
He (the Beast or AntiChrist) causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Source: click here
