Senators push to ditch Social Security numbers in light of Equifax hack

In 2017, Equifax lost over 100 million users’ social security numbers, which is a vital piece of a US resident’s identity and its loss can lead to identity fraud. In a hearing on how to protect users against large-scale data breaches, senators and CEOs of large tech companies discussed how permanent social security numbers don’t work well with the modern digital era. Rather, a more flexible digital identity is a better alternative. One of the models used in this hearing was Brazil’s digital citizen identification system, which uses digital certificates and must be renewed every three years. Key Words: information security, national policies, cyber norms