Simon Black – If you are a taxpayer in the Land of the Free, you may have recently received a love letter from the Social Security Administration that went something like this:
“Dear [Medieval serf paying into an insolvent pension fund]:”
(OK I added that part myself)
“Starting in August 2016, Social Security is adding a new step to protect your privacy. . .”
Whoa. Full stop. I love it already.
My dear Uncle Sam, who spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to spy on absolutely friggin’ everybody, is suddenly interested in protecting my privacy.
“This new requirement is the result of an executive order for federal agencies to provide more secure authentication for their online services.”
This part is hilarious. The US government has been hacked so many times over the last several years that it is the laughing stock of global cybersecurity.
Hackers have stolen 5.6 million government employee fingerprints, tens of millions of social security numbers, and financial and medical records from 19.7 million people who had been subjected to a government background check.
And those are just a few of the data breaches that we know about, and only over the last couple of years.
The US government is a veritable goldmine for identity thieves.
Social Security and Date of Birth data can sell for $30 on the black market. Stolen health records go for $10 to $50 each, and bank details can fetch up to $300.