Two researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in the US have recently shown how a single piece of information can be used to commit identity theft, with a little unwitting help from the US Government.

The research has shown how to reverse-engineer an American citizen’s Social Security number (the key piece of ID data that lets an individual apply for driving licenses, credit cards, etc.) using nothing more than data from publicly available government sites, and the data users share with the world on Facebook.

They developed an algorithm which could guess the first part of the Social Security number, which is based on an individual’s date and state of birth, to 90% accuracy.  The remaining digits could then be cracked by random number generation, and then checked for accuracy in name and state against FaceBook listings.

It’s an excellent example of how a determined organisation or person could find and use information that could compromise sensitive data.  All the more reason to keep your data secured wherever it is.