Military Fails the Identity Security Test - Big Time!

Photo courtesy of US Department of defense

The New York Times reports that,

"The government warns Americans to closely guard their Social
Security numbers. But it has done a poor job of protecting those
same numbers for millions of people: the nation’s soldiers, sailors,
airmen and Marines."

Read the entire article and be shocked! If you have anyone in the service tell them to up their guard because the military is failing to protect its members from ID theft.

The article quotes the report just released on this issue which says that,

“Service members and their families are burdened with a work environment that shows little regard for their personal information,” the report says, adding that the service members, “their units, military preparedness and combat effectiveness all will pay a price for decades to come.”

Basically they seem to never have heard of ID theft so the US armed services continue to use the Social Security number for all identification, often even on soldiers laundry bags! This is a full blown disgrace and YOU (not someone else) need to contact you Senator and Congressman and tell them to issue a cease and desist order now.

The US military needs to immediately do what most states and colleges have done which is to issue an ID number to replace the SS number for all trivial identification purposes. The SS number should ONLY be used for payroll type information and should (as you and I know) be secured.

Also if they can, members of the armed forces should take out ID theft insurance because often they are in places overseas where ID theft is rampant.

Wouldn't ID theft insurance make a great Christmas gift for a soldier you know? Better than another piece of junk made in China!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Dr. Steffen Schmidt and the ID Theft Education Staff.

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