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Pentagon to phase out SSNs on ID cards

Social Security numbers will disappear from the ID cards of military family members by the end of the year, temporarily replaced by the Social Security number of the military sponsor in a half-step toward better identity-theft protection, defense officials said Thursday.

In 2009, the Defense Department will take the next step of phasing out full Social Security numbers on all ID cards for service members and civilians, replaced by just the last four digits. Using those digits, combined with other identifying information, is a common practice in the private sector.

New cards will be issued as old cards expire, defense officials said.

Officials described the ID card changes as part of a phased approach to improving identity protection for service members, civilian employees and their families. The first step was to improve security over military databases. A second step was to remove Social Security numbers from Tricare health system ID cards, defense officials said.

Getting Social Security numbers off the ID cards of family members is considered a high priority because they make up about 2.2 million of the 3.4 million people who have military-issued common access cards.

Congress has been pressing the Defense Department to move faster because of the risk of identity theft. A Social Security number, along with a name, address and a few other easily discovered facts, makes it possible to get credit in another person’s name.

The House Armed Services Committee has been pushing for several years for the Pentagon to stop using Social Security numbers altogether, but it has faced resistance because the number is used in both personnel and payroll systems.

The Pentagon has also resisted removing Social Security numbers from the dog tags of service members and from the ID cards of civilian employees who deploy overseas because the numbers are part of the information used to comply with terms of the Geneva Conventions, defense officials said.