anybody can get your SSN in 10 minutes on the internet?

a couple weeks ago i was watching msnbc or something and they had frank abignail(the catch me if you can guy) on and he said that anybody(doesn't require any hacking or anything) could track down someone's social security number in about 10 minutes on the internet. he went on to say that whether you get your identity stolen or not is basically a lottery because of this and i think they did some kind of activity where they tracked down some dirt on the host of the show(possibly his ssn, i dont remember it too well).

well, my dad and i decided to try and see what we could come up with on him since frank abignail said it was so prevalent and anybody could do it, and we came up with nothing, but then again we didnt have much of an idea where to start from or what to look for. so, are things really as bad as this guy claims? i cant imagine companies or the government just posting something like my ssn out on a web page somewhere, i cant even think of a reason that they would need to.

Watch "Hackers" and try those nifty things they do.

sarcastic comment by the way...

no not everybody's social security number is on the internet, if it is it on a website it can be tracked down without any hacking, if it is on a computer that is online but doesnt have a website secured or not, you probably would need some skills at hacking to get it.

No you wouldn't...

Hey Hey,

At lot of these places are mostly hype but read the list of what you can "obtain" through these guys.


http://www.detectivewho.com/
http://www.records-search.net/
http://www.abika.com/Reports/LocatePerson.htm

There's a shitload more of these found with this search. It'd be interesting to sign up for one and give it a test... see if they can actually provide all that data... With so many Freedom of Information acts, I'd believe a good deal of it..

BTW that was my first search and I'd assume it'd take me less than 10 minutes to sign up for one of these sites.

Peace,
HT

I hate to say this... but yea those are all ways to get an SSN which is why I never send it out over the web.

Most webservers which store SSN's are fairly unsecure so it's pretty simple to get an IP from them and those websites... as illegal as they should be do work.

And with the websites you can find everything from their parents names to their address.

It really sucks as to how the internet is losing it's privacy.

Quote:

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It really sucks as to how the internet is losing it's privacy.

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This seems to be primarily an issue in the US. (or more prevelant in the US). I don't think it's the internet per say but rather that the government has put less emphasis on individual privacy (that is, state and federal agencies being responsible for ensuring privacy of information collected and stored) than is done elsewhere. Because many agencies are online and don't have to worry about this they are far more lax about what information they have and who they share it with.

IMO.