5 ms·

If you were born before 1989, your SSN can be guessed with 44% accuracy by an algorithm. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2009/07/social-security-numbers-are-eas

• sokoloff 10y ago
  > If you were born before 1989, your SSN can be guessed with 44% accuracy by an algorithm. The actual situation is quite a bit less dire than your quote. What that linked article says is that for people born AFTER 1989, the first five digits could be guessed with 44% accuracy. (There's a very real sense that the "last 4 of your social" are less guessable than the first five, so it's no surprise that the last 4 is what is often used/misused.)
  • deftnerd 10y ago
    I've seen multiple databases that have the results of asking the user to enter the "last 4 of your SSN" If you have those last 4 digits, and you can guess the first 5 digits with nearly 50% accuracy, then you have a very good chance on getting legitimate SSN's for mass numbers of people with a DB dump.