UpGuard research found a trove of sensitive information in an exposed Elastic database. Getting to the bottom of what it meant led us down an interesting path.
Q20: Are Social Security numbers reused after a person dies?
A: No. We do not reassign a Social Security number (SSN) after the number holder’s death. Even though we have issued over 453 million SSNs so far, and we assign about 5 and one-half million new numbers a year, the current numbering system will provide us with enough new numbers for several generations into the future with no changes in the numbering system.
If this is US social security numbers, they only have 9 digits so there can’t be billions of them.
They get reused. Also:
https://www.ssa.gov/history/hfaq.html :
Q20: Are Social Security numbers reused after a person dies?
A: No. We do not reassign a Social Security number (SSN) after the number holder’s death. Even though we have issued over 453 million SSNs so far, and we assign about 5 and one-half million new numbers a year, the current numbering system will provide us with enough new numbers for several generations into the future with no changes in the numbering system.
Weird, I was quite confident in that memory. Thanks for the link.
I am confused. I distinctly remember news stories about us running out of ss#s. I remember stories of people getting the same number. Wtf?
They used to be geocoded, and Florida did run out of their original set of numbers at one point, so it was given a new block (585-595)