White House official claimed that SSN cannot be used to verify identities

At The Washington Post's Cybersecurity Summit on Tuesday, the cybersecurity coordinator of the White House, Rob Joyce, stood for the end of Social Security numbers (Ssn). They were used to verify Americans' identities. According to Joyce, "the Social Security Number has outlived its usefulness," the Hill reported. Among the mentioned problems was the inability to change the SSN even after your data has been stolen, which leads to the lack of secrecy.

The necessity of cybersecurity regulation

Earlier, when the company Equifax was hacked, the SSNs of around 145 million US citizens were revealed.

Joyce appealed to Congress, noting that the regulation of cybersecurity is extremely necessary.

Joyce added that the White House should be more transparent in the Vulnerabilities Equities Process. It is aimed to choose the hacking techniques which can be left secret for using them for espionage.

Several major companies stated their disagreement with Joyce, noting that it is necessary to fix any security vulnerabilities in software or hardware. Joyce stated that the White House officials and federal agencies are aiming to set clearer rules. He revealed the new information that the secret vulnerabilities are reviewed every half a year.

On Tuesday, the former Equifax CEO Richard Smith also announced that now it is high time to cancel the Social Security number as a national identifier, Ars Technica reported.

He said that "I personally know my Social Security number has been compromised at least four times in my lifetime."

Any violations of the cybersecurity demonstrate that the Social Security number had never been intended to be a universal ID form. The breaches can influence US residents' financial lives, so the lawmakers are intending to tighten regulations on the ID security issue.

The White House is aiming to remove vulnerabilities

According to the experts, the malicious attacks Wannary and NotPetya spread because of the vulnerabilities. Microsoft had succeeded in removing them less than a month before the attacks.

Joyce mentioned the federal ban on Russian Kaspersky Lab software, which had been imposed in the fear of being co-opted by Russians.

Joyce considers that Russia did not use American firms to protect its cyber systems.

Joyce said that the White House officials had started the process of changing the way of developing international rules for cyber diplomacy.