[ale] OT: am I paranoid?

[Ray Knight]

On Thu, 2003-10-09 at 10:26, Jonathan Rickman wrote:
> On Thursday 09 October 2003 09:22, Geoffrey wrote:
> > Okay folks, quick question.  A credit union I belong to has started a
> > contest on an online newsletter.  The contest consists of posting the
> > last 5 digits of 5 different credit union members SSN in the webpage.
> > If you find your 5 digits there, you win. Now I know it's not the whole
> > thing, but I personally have a problem with this.
> >
> > So, thoughts?  We can take this to private email please..
> 
> No. You're not paranoid. Disclosing more than the last 4 digits is 
> considered a risk. I once saw a reference that explained why in great 
> detail. If I can dig it up, I'll pass it along.

Actually your last 4 digits and your name can be enough about %70 of the
time.  As was stated earlier the first 3 digits correspond to where you
were living when the number was issued, for instance Georgia has 255,
256 etc. (Don't remember the full range off the top of my head).

-- 
Ray Knight <audilover at atlantabroadband.com>