Loading...

SSN Randomization

Published: December 3, 2010 by Guest Contributor

By: Margarita Lim

Recently, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that it will change how Social Security numbers (SSN) will be issued, with a move toward a random method of assigning SSNs. Social Security numbers are historically 9 digits in length, and are comprised of a three-digit number that represents a geographic area, a two-digit number referred to as a Group number and a four digit serial number.You can go to http://www.ssa.gov/employer/randomization.html to learn more about this procedural change, but in summary, the random assignment of SSNs will affect:

• The geographic significance of the first three digits of the SSN because it will no longer uniquely represent specific states
• The correlation of the Group number (the fourth and fifth digits of the SSN) to an issuance date range.

What does this mean?

It means that if you’re a business or agency that uses any type of authentication product in order to minimize fraud losses, one of the components used to verify a consumer’s identity – Social Security number, will no longer be validated with respect to state and date.   However, one of the main advantages of utilizing a risk-based approach to authentication is the reduction in over-reliance on one identity element validation result.  Validation of SSN issuance date and state, while useful in determining certain levels of risk, is but one of many attributes and conditions utilized in detailed results, robust analytics, and risk-based decisioning.  It can also be argued that the randomization of SSN issuance, while somewhat impacting the intelligence we can glean from a specific number, may also prove to be beneficial to consumer protection and the overall confidence in the SSN issuance process.

Related Posts

In this latest installment of “working with vendors” let’s dive into some best practices for writing RFIs and RFPs.

Published: April 2, 2021 by Peter Accorti

Digitalization continues to remain a top priority for many organizations in 2021.

Published: March 26, 2021 by Kelly Nguyen

If you’re looking to buy new decisioning software, your first inclination might be to issue an RFI or an RFP. However, that may not be the best idea.

Published: March 18, 2021 by Stefani Wendel

Subscription title for insights blog

Description for the insights blog here

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Categories title

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

Subscription title 2

Description here
Subscribe Now

Text legacy

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source.

recent post

Learn More Image