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Security in the 90s.
(programming.dev)
The red circle was there when I found it, I swear!
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this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
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iiiiiiitttttttttttt
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you know the computer thing is it plugged in?
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The idea of data security just wasn’t a thing until very recently.
Credit cards sales were recorded using ink imprints of the cards’ raised numbers, and the “duplicate paper” was then discarded with little thought into the trash. Phone books listed names and addresses of anyone who didn’t pay extra to have them omitted (very few people bothered). Checks (the things you wrote and handed out to ANYONE from the phone company to the paperboy) usually included social security numbers, and most universities also used Social Security Numbers as student ID numbers and required them to be printed on just about everything until well into the 90s. Simpler times.
The uni I am going to right now, focused on technology, decided to use birth numbers (similar to SSN I guess) as a password for housing accounts of new students.
Birth number isn't even treated like something that should be super private. I think it still is considered private information like phone number and email address, but its only purpose is supposed to be identification. Some 4 digits that are chosen somehow + date of birth.
I was also surprised to just get sent the password for another system by email in plaintext.
Better than McDonald's security I guess: https://bobdahacker.com/blog/mcdonalds-security-vulnerabilities
I’m not sure I ever saw a check with a social security number on it, but the rest of this is absolutely true
Was a common practice for me until my mid-20's. If it wasn't pre-printed on then, cashiers would ask what it was and write it in the check.
I just burned some old ones I found in an old file cabinet the other day. I don’t think I ever had them myself, but I l remember a teller asking whether I wanted to include it.