Gee, who could've foreseen this happening after a gang of techbro goons forced their way in and opened backdoors on all those computers...
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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Forced their way in, were given the keys and explicit orders to take all the data and put it in massive back-door ridden places for themselves and Russia, potato, potahto
I don't think it was a "random" cloud server at all. I think the people who bought the data already have it now.
Half right. OP's title is massively misleading. Private SSA cloud, the complaint is about where oversight comes from.
I’ve said for a while that the SSA should do basically this exact thing. In a more controlled manner, but still the same result. Announce something like “in two years, we’ll make our database public. Every single name, DOB, and SSN will be publicly searchable.
It sounds radical, but SSNs were never meant to be a secure form of ID. Old cards even said something like “do not use this as ID” on them. But organizations quickly latched onto it because they wanted to have a way to identify individuals with the same name and DOB. And SSNs were convenient because people already had them.
It would force organizations to develop their own way to ID people. It would be a huge step towards making an actual secure form of ID. And the warning time would give people enough time to design the new system and roll it out, while still giving a hard deadline for when it needs to be done.
Exactly who I trust to create a logically organized database of all peoples within the United States. The current administration..
I don't love the idea of the Trump administration being in charge of creating a national ID system, but this maybe the best time to make one.
If Democrats proposed a national ID database the crazy 'FEMA is coming to round us up' republicans would freak out about it. As proven with Trump sending the national guard into D.C., as long as Trump does it they don't care.
I dont have a problem with that, but what I will object to is the current regime making the replament ID system. 1) there is no way they would design it well or securely, smart people capable of building such a system are usually the first to bounce to another country as they will have the means to do so. 2) it would be too easy for them to lord the new ID over peoples heads (like they are with immigration status now) and impliment a social credit score like China does.
Your correct that SSNs should not be used as IDs, but getting the government to build a modern system for that opens too many avanues for abuse (especially with darth cheeto in charge).
I don't know much about it, but what did they change with the whole Real ID / star on Licenses and such. I believe the purpose was to make it so the IDs were to a minimum standard so they could be accepted in all 50 states. If they all had unique ID numbers (I don't know that they do) they could have just used those, or expanded on those and already have the ID system in place. To travel to another state and have a valid ID, I believe the cut off date is November of this year. (At least for my State, because my spouse doesn't drive and her ID she was told would no longer be valid post November if she doesn't go in and get it done)
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No, we don't need this at all. businesses need to be fined out of existence for using the ssn, and lenders should do due diligence without some imaginary score.
There was a time when bank card number was practically all you needed to get someone's money.
I think Estonia's electronic IDs are the best, they have the government sign (sometimes provide, but generally just sign) your public key. It's both that the government doesn't have your private key and that it's immediately usable for many things. I don't know if they do, but one can also make ID cards (with a necessary chip inside, of course), where a private key can be written and used for signing operations, but not read back.
Modern technology allows so much goodness that politicians and corps have just started globally gaslighting us over what can be done and what can't. Stalling on technically easily solvable issues, so that it wouldn't come to real ones.
The simple act of comparing signatures meant that it was very difficult to randomly target people. We don't have anything like that today, like a key/token pair.
It could be why it's being done, because SSN are being used inappropriately. Potential leaks like this will force banks and other entities to begin making account access more difficult, and this will make it from difficult to next to impossible for a large number of seniors, those who've saved the most and have the biggest accounts, to access it. This would happen even if it was done in a two year controlled manner.
OP, please revise your title to match the article, it is currently misinformation.
The complaint is about where the oversight comes from. This is not some random cloud server.
“S.S.A. stores all personal data in secure environments that have robust safeguards in place to protect vital information,” he said. “The data referenced in the complaint is stored in a longstanding environment used by S.S.A. and walled off from the internet. High-level career S.S.A. officials have administrative access to this system with oversight by S.S.A.’s information security team.”
BUT WONT SOMEONE THINK OF THE SENSATIONALISM?
I agree that "random server" is a bad choice of words, but do want to add additional information context as the concern isn't necessarily unwarranted. Another qoute from the article:
“I have determined the business need is higher than the security risk associated with this implementation and I accept all risks,” wrote Aram Moghaddassi, who worked at two of Mr. Musk’s companies, X and Neuralink, before becoming Social Security’s chief information officer, in a July 15 memo.
Its also sounds like they did spin up a new database with limited security/oversight to "move" faster. Why that's worrisome is they aren't denying there is a risk or lack of security, they are just saying it's justified.
Could you please explain like I'm 10?
The SSA stores a lot of sensitive data. Normally with sensitive data you want to be very careful with who can access it and how.
What is potentially worrisome in this situation is it seems like the SSA is taking on the "move fast and break things" attitude of Silicon Valley.
More technically, most government agencies use AWS and Azure (cloud providers) to host data. So spinning up a new server isn't inherently bad. However, creating a new server that is secure and has the correct access controls (user permissions regarding who can see/change content) can be challenging. The whistle blower believes they are not doing this right, and it sounds like the head of the SSA isn't disagreeing, just saying he thinks the risk is worth it.
Oh yea, agree it's a dumb move. This should be on-prem data IMO.
DOGE employees should be executed by firing squad. In fact, we should bring back a whole bunch of capital punishments- hanging, beheading, drawing and quartering, burning at the stake; unless you meet the fascists at their level you’ll never scare them enough to keep their political views private. Like what happened to Mussolini was TOO GOOD for every single person involved in the executive branch right now.
Do this to everyone Trump hired or part of his cohort including him. They are all evil gangster criminals.
You know, at some point you actually do something to put out the fire, you leave, or you burn.
The whole world knows by now that these numbers are good for identifying people, and what a giant data privacy hole it is that they even exist.
So, no wonder, it had to happen sooner or later.
The whole world knows by now that these numbers are good for identifying people, and what a giant data privacy hole it is that they even exist.
No, the giant problem is that you can do everything using only SSN.
SSN is a good example of the illusion of freedom for Americans, why have a standardized Photo ID when you can have a set of numbers that when leaks can ruin your life.
Good, let everything go wrong in America, they might eventually wake up and realise what a clusterfuck they've allowed themselves to become and actually do something about it.
This is all on purpose. Nothing's going wrong [for them]. The well being of regular people isn't the goal.
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Accelerationism like that never works. When it all settles, you get extremely mild improvements for a whole lot of hurt.
Accelerationism can work if you are in position to lead the rebellion. But for the vast majority of us, you'd be a foot soldier, probably die before ever seeing the day of victory.
What do you propose then, I'm asking in good faith. It's fairly obvious to anyone with common sense that Trump, the GOP and the entire MAGA movement and their ilk need to be removed from power. How can people fight the government that is back by billionaires who control your entire lives?
Protests must be more sustained instead of the bursts of activity we've seen. Even direct action will fail if it's not combined with large scale protest methods. Unfortunately, people get worn down doing constant protesting.
Trump won't be around in another 10 years one way or another. It's rare to find cults of personality that outlive their leader. But if we use Nazi Germany as an example of what happens next, it's basically a return to liberalism. Half the country went to that almost immediately, and the other half just took longer. Granted, Germany has a better social safety net than America does now, but it's hardly anti-capitalist.
TBH, I don't have a good answer. I'm mostly doing the anarchist thing of using social groups to get people to rely less on capitalism and more on each other. That's more of a long term thing, though.
I appreciate the honest reply, I agree with most things, I think large scale protests must include a general strike. This administration is all about the bottom line, and a sustained general strike will hit them hard. I'm well aware of the argument of people living paycheck to paycheck seemingly unable to do that, however the alternative is very bleak. I wish you luck and keep it up
Just to address the idea of a general strike, you pretty much have to get sustained protests going first. More specifically, they have to encourage people from different backgrounds to work together outside of capitalist structures.
I forget the exact example, but I think it was the 1934 San Fransisco general strike. Whole city shut down, including restaurants. One problem was that there were a lot of young men who worked in the factories and lived in small apartments with no kitchens at all. They went to the general strike committee and made it known that they rely on the restaurants for their daily meals. The committee understood and had some restaurants approved for opening along with delivery trucks so they could operate. Problem solved.
Point is that you need organization around that sort of thing where even marginal groups can have their problems heard. Without getting people into organized groups, it's going to fail. If nobody listened to those young men and did something, then they would have had the choice of starving or crossing the picket line.
Those are all excellent and valid points, do you think normal thinking Americans will manage that, sustained protests followed by strike action. I completely understand the point made about the young men, the elderly and most vulnerable groups will need support. Right now all I see is some protests in some states but nothing indicates this will evolve.
Honestly, no. US infrastructure for this stuff is scaffolding, at best.
It's looking very bad eh...
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We‘re getting closer to a cyberpunk world every day
"I just cloned it onto my server because my connection is not really good!"
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