The Salt Lake Tribune Rebecca Walsh column: Social Security numbers more prone to insecurity

By Rebecca Walsh

Jun. 12, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- I figure it's just a matter of time before I get a credit card statement for a week at Paradise Beach, a shopping spree at the Forum Shops or a tummy tuck in Miami.

It won't be my credit card, of course, or my plastic surgery, my Kate Spade bag or my vacation in the Bahamas. It will be like that Citibank leather bustier commercial -- but less funny.

My bag -- with my original Social Security card, my credit cards, my driver license and my bank statement in it -- was stolen from my car in a smash-and-grab in the Avenues years ago. I've been waiting for the fallout ever since. Except for a random subpoena for a car accident in Murray I never witnessed, nothing has shown up. I was just starting to get comfortable with 15 years of relative identity theft silence.

But now, I've got new reason to worry.

I assume my records are among the 2.2 million billing files stolen last week. I go to University clinics rarely; my health insurance has never been compatible. But one skin cancer screening six years ago apparently has put me at risk again.

A subdued University of Utah Health Sciences Vice President Lorris Betz apologized. Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder and FBI agents tried to tamp down hysteria, noting that special equipment is required to read the tapes.

University Hospital will spend $500,000 on stamps and envelopes to notify more than 1 million patients. Those affected can get one year of free credit monitoring. And university health care managers are reviewing security policies and procedures.

All the granite vaults and high-tech software in the world could not have stopped this. The breakdown was human: the veteran Perpetual Storage employee who stashed the tapes in his car in Kearns overnight. Identity theft never seems to be the result of computer surveillance. It's always the laptop stolen by a bungling burglar, the metal box left in the back seat to tempt a car prowler.

The tapes could already be in a dumpster or they could be for sale to the highest bidder. Either way, our lives have changed. Privacy is a thing of the past.

Intermountain Health Care Spokesman Daron Cowley was quick to insist this kind of breach could never happen at Intermountain. Like University Hospital, Intermountain keeps backup tapes of every record offsite in case of a catastrophic system failure or natural disaster. But, Cowley says, Intermountain's records are encrypted.

"The only way you can access that information is if you have the code," Cowley says. "If somebody stole them, they would be useless."

With the increasing availability of encryption software and hacking know-how, I'm not quite reassured.

Social Security numbers have become almost more trouble than they're worth. At once proof of citizenship and employment, they are also a back door to another person's life.

The University of Utah stopped using them on student identification cards years ago. Many private health insurance providers have shifted to unrelated "group" numbers. And last year, Utah lawmakers prohibited printing Social Security numbers on death certificates. But the federal government still uses them to identify Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Seems the easiest and cheapest solution is to stop using Social Security numbers on anything but Social Security records.

walsh@sltrib.com

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