pulsewave

This stuff is only just now being analyzed? The format of a social security number is fairly well-known already, so the results really aren’t that surprising. But it would surprise me if nobody has used attacks like these in the past to brute-force SSNs directly.

From the article,

“The researchers used the information they gleaned to predict, in one try, the first five digits of a person’s Social Security number 44 percent of the time for 160,000 people born between 1989 and 2003.”

From a Slashdot user,

“Good thing they only put the last 4 digits on my paycheck!”