"What’s your social?" How many times have you heard that question, from credit card companies, doctors’ offices, and just about every other type of organization? Perhaps you were confident that all these organizations are keeping your "social" completely confidential. I’m not so confident about that, and here’s evidence that they’re not:

Security experts held a contest this month to show just how quick and effective Google hacking can be. During a technology security-industry meeting in Seattle, contestants using only Google for less than an hour turned up sensitive information — potentially useful for financial fraud — on about 25 million people. They dug up various combinations of people’s names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and credit-card information, including some card numbers apparently left exposed by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Identity Theft Made Easier Hackers Use Simple Tricks With Google, Yahoo Searches To Tap Personal Information By Kevin J. Delaney, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL,,,, 29 March 2005

This just adds to all the recent cases where organizations have lost massive sets of identity information on millions of people because they didn’t keep even rudimentary security over them.

What can you do?