Social Security Number Holders in the United States, 1909-2019

Currently, a social security number (SSN) is held by almost every legal resident of the United States and works as an important numbering system. However, this was not the case in the early years of the Social Security program and historical changes in SSN holder rates had not been examined sufficiently. It is important to understand the changes in health policies and situations. Thus, the present article examined historical changes in the rates of SSN holders in the United States between 1909 and 2019. Analyses demonstrated that the rates clearly increased. Specifically, in Phase 1 (1909-1919), the rates were low in the early period, but they increased markedly. In Phase 2 (1919-1952), the rates continued to increase gradually. In Phase 3 (1952-2019), the rates were almost 100% and reached saturation. This basic information leads to a better understanding of the health policies and situations, contributing to medical and social science research.

Reducing tax identity theft by identifying vulnerability points in the electronic tax filing process

Purpose Tax Identity Theft involves the illegal use of a potential taxpayer’s identity, usually the social security number, to fraudulently file a tax return and claim a refund. The victim is the real owner of the social security number who will have difficulties getting a tax refund, as the offender has already taken a refund for the year in question. This paper aims to investigate whether the increased use and adoption of electronic tax filing (i.e. E-Filing) technologies has inadvertently resulted in a corresponding growth in Tax Identity Theft. Design/methodology/approach Multiple regressions are used to analyze the data that is extracted from the Identity Theft complaint reports (maintained by the Federal Trade Commission) and the tax filing statistics (retrieved from the Internal Revenue Service). Findings The results indicate that E-Filing can indirectly but significantly increase Tax Identity Theft through the full mediation effects of individual Self-E-Filing and Direct Deposit adoption, after controlling for general Identity Theft, the number of Individual Tax Returns and Total Refunds. Originality/value The authors explore the association between the adoption of tax e-filing technologies and Tax Identity Theft. The findings suggest that the key loopholes in the Tax Identity Theft process are at the Self-E-Filing and the Direct Deposit points. Several practical recommendations for patching these loopholes are provided and discussed.

An Efficient Search Algorithm for Large Encrypted Data by Homomorphic Encryption

The purpose of this study is to provide an efficient search function over a large amount of encrypted data, where the bit length of each item is several tens of bits. For this purpose, we have improved the existing hybrid homomorphic encryption by enabling the longer data items to be stored while using multiple encrypted databases and by suggesting an improved search method working on top of the multiple instances of the database. Further, we found the optimal number of databases to be needed when 40-bit information, such as social security number, is stored after encryption. Through experiments, we were able to check the existence of a given (Korean) social security number of 13 decimal digits in approximately 12 s from a database that has 10 million encrypted social security numbers over a typical personal computer environment. The outcome of this research can be used to build a large-scale, practical encrypted database in order to support the search operation. In addition, it is expected to be used as a method for providing both security and practicality to the industry dealing with credit information evaluation and personal data requiring privacy.

Decentralized finance

Research background: Its simplest form, decentralized finance is a system by which financial products become available on a public decentralized blockchain network, making them open to anyone to use, rather than going through middlemen like banks or brokerages. Unlike a bank or brokerage account, a government-issued ID, Social Security number, or proof of address are not necessary to use DeFi. Purpose of the article: The aim of the contribution is more specifically, DeFi refers to a system by which software written on blockchains makes it possible for buyers, sellers, lenders, and borrowers to interact peer to peer or with a strictly software-based middleman rather than a company or institution facilitating a transaction. Methods: Multiple technologies and protocols are used to achieve the goal of decentralization. For example, a decentralized system can consist of a mix of open-source technologies, blockchain, and proprietary software. Smart contracts that automate agreement terms between buyers and sellers or lenders and borrowers make these financial products possible. Regardless of the technology or platform used, DeFi systems are designed to remove intermediaries between transacting parties. Findings & Value added: The article provides an overview of decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions that have already proved they are better alternatives to traditional finance. With DeFi, users can take advantage of lower transaction rates, higher interest rates or an opportunity to diversify investments.

Derivation and validation of a machine learning record linkage algorithm between emergency medical services and the emergency department

Objective Linking emergency medical services (EMS) electronic patient care reports (ePCRs) to emergency department (ED) records can provide clinicians access to vital information that can alter management. It can also create rich databases for research and quality improvement. Unfortunately, previous attempts at ePCR and ED record linkage have had limited success. In this study, we use supervised machine learning to derive and validate an automated record linkage algorithm between EMS ePCRs and ED records. Materials and Methods All consecutive ePCRs from a single EMS provider between June 2013 and June 2015 were included. A primary reviewer matched ePCRs to a list of ED patients to create a gold standard. Age, gender, last name, first name, social security number, and date of birth were extracted. Data were randomly split into 80% training and 20% test datasets. We derived missing indicators, identical indicators, edit distances, and percent differences. A multivariate logistic regression model was trained using 5-fold cross-validation, using label k-fold, L2 regularization, and class reweighting. Results A total of 14 032 ePCRs were included in the study. Interrater reliability between the primary and secondary reviewer had a kappa of 0.9. The algorithm had a sensitivity of 99.4%, a positive predictive value of 99.9%, and an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.99 in both the training and test datasets. Date-of-birth match had the highest odds ratio of 16.9, followed by last name match (10.6). Social security number match had an odds ratio of 3.8. Conclusions We were able to successfully derive and validate a record linkage algorithm from a single EMS ePCR provider to our hospital EMR.

Point of Sale (POS) Network with Embedded Fingerprint Biometric Authentication

The steady growth in electronic transactions has promoted the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) thereby making it the main transaction channel for carrying out financial transactions. Conventional method of identification based on possession of ID cards or exclusive knowledge like a social security number or a password are not all together reliable. However, this has also increased the amount of fraudulent activities carried out on Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) thereby calling for efficient security mechanisms and increasing the demand for fast and accurate user identification and authentication in ATMs. In this paper, an embedded fingerprint biometric authentication scheme for Point of Sale (POS) network as additional security option to the ATM card is proposed. A fingerprint biometric technique was fused with personal identification numbers (PIN's) for authentication to upgrade the security level. The proposed idea will solve the problems that may face the customers such as theft, counterfeiting, oblivion or loss the card. Therefore, the customer will be identified once putting his finger on the reader (based on finger scanning) and the system recognizes the customer without requiring keys or cards of support. We have distributed a questioner to 586 responders, the obtained results show the importance of fingerprint biometric authentication for POS network as additional security option to the ATM card.