Time to Retire Social Security Numbers

The recently publicized Equifax breach exposed names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and more for 143 million Americans. With that kind of information on the black market, criminal fraud will follow and lives will be upturned. Writing for RealClear Policy, Daniel Castro argues that addressing this should be an urgent priority for Congress. There are measures lawmakers should take to avert the next big breach—but we also need a fundamental shift in strategy for protecting people’s identities: We should replace America’s outdated system of Social Security numbers with a secure alternative that effectively turns other forms of personal information into worthless trivia.