The problem

1
The problem

• Social Security Numbers (SSNs) are used as
  identifying numbers in health, financial, legal,
  and educational areas.
• Identity theft becomes very simple with access to
  biographical data and a SSN

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The problem

• Many people post their resumes online but do not
  remove their SSN from it
• Web searching technology can find resumes that
  contain SSNs
• Basic patterns of resume writing and the SSN
  itself allow programs to extract SSNs from
  documents automatically

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Ease of Identity Theft

• Name, Address, DOB, SSN, mothers maiden name
  only requisites for student Discover card
• The SSN is by far the least accessible of these
  (a resume is likely to have a name, address, and
  DOB anyway, and birth records are usually public)

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Identity theft
Birth record -From name, get mothers maiden DOB
All necessary information for most fraud attempts
Resume -Get name, SSN, address

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The goal

• Write a program to search resumes collected
  online for SSNs and email addresses
• Use these email addresses to notify the resume
  owner that their SSN is at risk so they can
  remove it

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The process

• After obtaining resumes, parse them for the SSN
  and email (if available)
• Export these data to formatted output of SSNs and
  emails

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The process

• Compose email to each email/SSN combination to
  inform the resume owner of their potential danger
• Provide responses to address specific concerns
  should they arise

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Results

• From a database of 77 names, 46 emails were
  obtained, 41 of which were valid
• 12 (30) of email recipients replied
• 15 (37) of email recipients removed their SSN
  within a week

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Results

• Of the 12 who responded by email, 8 (67) had
  removed their SSNs
• Every email response was very positive

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Actual email responses

• Thank you for this advice. I will do so.
• Thank you very much indeed.
• Thank you very much!
• It's amazing that you are able to accomplish
  this service and heartening that you choose to
  provide it freely.
• Many thanks. I'll check up on this.

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Requests

• Often people seemed unaware that their resume was
  online
• Many asked how to find where their resume was and
  how to remove it
• Such requests were answered to the best of our
  ability

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Conclusions

• Many people do not recognize that their SSNs are
  easily accessed online
• A fully automated system for emailing would
  provide significant assistance in ensuring SSN
  privacy
• Education on both identity protection and the
  public nature of the Internet is vital as its
  usefulness grows