From the very beginning the Social Security Administration specifically warned everyone not to use social security numbers for identification purposes.
So who do you think would be the first major organization to ignore this warning? The US government and specifically the US military. I assume they’ve changed their primary identification key, but military IDs issued over many decades had the members SSN front and center. Once the door was opened pretty much every public and private organization and business followed the government’s lead. Drivers licenses, bank accounts, phone companies, loan companies, credit agencies, etc.
At this point in time it’s very likely that your SSN has been leaked - multiple times. Heck, even before the massive Equifax debacle my SSN was leaked by none other than the Veterans Administration. It seems like a major leak occurs about once per year. I haven’t paid for credit monitoring for nearly a decade because each new breach results in at least one year of free credit monitoring. Every time I have to apply for credit I have to unlock my credit history for a very tight time window. It’s a hassle but locking everything down is necessary.
Every time I have to apply for credit I have to unlock my credit history for a very tight time window. It’s a hassle but locking everything down is necessary.
This is 100% the best thing to do even if you have not been compromised. Eventually, all of everyone’’s information will get leaked. Might as well used to unlocking, getting credit, then re-locking. Eventually, that won’t work, or they’ll figure out how to unlock your credit without you.
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At this point in time it’s very likely that your SSN has been leaked - multiple times. Heck, even before the massive Equifax debacle my SSN was leaked by none other than the Veterans Administration. It seems like a major leak occurs about once per year. I haven’t paid for credit monitoring for nearly a decade because each new breach results in at least one year of free credit monitoring. Every time I have to apply for credit I have to unlock my credit history for a very tight time window. It’s a hassle but locking everything down is necessary.