>The target was a Vietnamese man named Hieu Minh Ngo. Investigators believed he was a big-time identity thief who sold packages of data known as “fullz,” each of which typically included a person’s name, date of birth, mother’s maiden name, Social Security number, and e-mail address and password. Criminals could buy fullz from Ngo for as little as eight cents and then use them to open credit cards, take out loans, or file for bogus tax refunds. [...] He had allowed nearly 1,400 criminals to access a database containing the personal information of 200 million U.S. citizens—almost two-thirds of the population.
If two thirds of Americans have had all of that information compromised from this one incident alone, why do we use it as authentication for anything? Shouldn't the SSN be replaced/assisted by a key pair?
If two thirds of Americans have had all of that information compromised from this one incident alone, why do we use it as authentication for anything? Shouldn't the SSN be replaced/assisted by a key pair?