Feb. 21, 2006

GWid to Replace Social Security Number as Primary ID

BY JULIA JACOBELLI

Students, faculty, and staff of the GW community will receive a new identification number as part of a new program designed by Information Systems and Services (ISS), GWid, to phase out the use of Social Security Numbers (SSN).
ISS will issue an eight digit number preceded by the letter “G,” to be used wherever social security numbers have been traditionally used at GW. Processes such as financial aid, payroll, and tax reporting services will still use the SSNs due to federal reporting requirements. Individual SSN also will be removed under the GWid program from any services that generate paper forms, and the University advises that any unnecessary paper forms in possession of a student or faculty member should be shredded.

“Minimizing the use of Social Security Numbers is a University priority in order to protect members of the GW community from the risks of identity theft,” said Alexa Kim, executive director of ISS Technology Services.

Schools across the country have been phasing out the use of the SSN for several years, because of problems with identity theft. For instance, at the University of Texas at Austin a hacker stole data files containing the Social Security information for approximately 55,000 students. With the advent of new technology making it easier to access the large databases of student information found on many campuses, several state governments have drafted legislation prohibiting the use of SSN as identification.

Kim explained that there hasn’t been any federal or other major pressures to convert to GWid.

“GW is committed to protecting the privacy of its students, faculty, and staff, and reducing the use of Social Security Numbers is one way we can help that effort.”
ISS and the Gelman Library Information Technology Office are handling the bulk of the GWid project, generating unique numbers for members of the GW community and entering that information into the Banner system as the “primary record identifier” for each individual. Once those numbers are entered, any Banner application will be affected. Kim expects a six- to eight-month conversion period, and predicts that the system will be completely in place for the Fall 2006 semester.
“The expectations for the program are to provide GW with a more secure
environment for our community to interact with GW services at all levels,” said Kim.

The SSN was created in 1936 for the purpose of administering Social Security laws. It was initially intended for use exclusively by the federal government as a means of tracking earnings. In recent years, identity theft has become an increasingly widespread problem. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, identification theft affects between 500,000 and 700,000 people each year.
GW has been using the SSN as a primary identifier since the 1980s. It was not until the 1990s that it was used extensively as a unique identification number in the core systems of the University.

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