Excel for Microsoft 365 Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac Excel for the web Excel 2021 Excel 2021 for Mac Excel 2019 Excel 2019 for Mac Excel 2016 Excel 2016 for Mac Excel 2013 Excel 2010 Excel 2007 Excel for Mac 2011 More...Less Show Let's say, for common security measures, you want to display only the last four digits of an identification or Social Security number, credit card number, or other number and replace the rest of the digits with asterisks. Whether the digits in your cell are formatted as text, numbers, or the special Social Security number format, you can use the same functions. To display only the last four digits of identification numbers, use the CONCATENATE, RIGHT, and REPT functions. ExampleThe example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet. How to copy an example
Security Note: In the example, you should hide column B and protect the worksheet so that the original data cannot be viewed. Function detailsCONCATENATE RIGHT, RIGHTB REPT Need more help? From the course: Protecting Social Security Numbers “ - [Instructor] As organizations began to realize that storing the social security numbers of their employees, customers and students wasn't such a great idea, they struggled to find another universal identifier that they could use to distinguish individuals from one another. After all searching the database of any large organization is likely to reveal many cases where two individuals have identical names. How many John Smiths are in your
organization? Records managers then came up with an interesting idea. Maybe instead of using a person's full social security number, they could simply use the last four digits of that number. After all, there is then only a one in 10,000 chance that two John Smiths would share the same last four digits of their social security numbers. That seemed like a reasonable alternative to holding the entire social security number because those records managers didn't think that someone could use just
those last four digits in an identity theft attempt. In the minds of consumers, this became an acceptable practice. Most of us knew better than to give out our entire social security number but using only the last four digits seemed like a harmless request. So, we became conditioned to accept this as a normal business practice. However, there's more danger to the use of those last four digits than you might expect. This comes from the fact that for a long period of time social security numbers
were issued in a very structured manner. Social security numbers issued before 2011 used a highly structured format. The first three digits represent an area number and are linked to a specific US state. If you know the social security number of someone born before 2011, you can identify the state where the number was issued by looking at those first three digits. The next two digits are a group number that identify roughly the time when a social security number was issued within the area and
the last four digits are the unique identifier of an individual person, also known as the serial number. There's one other fact that you need to understand before we discuss the risk of using the last four digits of an individual social security number. Before 1987, social security numbers were issued on an as-needed basis. You applied for an SSN when you needed one for work, taxes or another reason. In 1987, this practice changed and the government began issuing social security numbers at
birth. These two facts, the structured nature of social security numbers that existed until 2011 and the issuance of social security numbers at birth beginning in 1987 combine to create a very significant issue for social security numbers that were issued between 1987 and 2011. The issue is that the first five digits of a social security number can be predicted on a fairly reliable basis for any number issued between 1987 and 2011. In 2009 researchers from Carnegie Mellon University published
this paper. In it they demonstrate that it's possible to reliably predict the first five digits of social security numbers for 44% of the people in the United States who were born after 1988. This is a huge problem for organizations that rely upon the use of the last four digits of SSNs. Is you know someone's birth date, and the state where they were born, you can combine those last four digits with the prediction made by this algorithm and you'll be correct about half the time. The bottom line
is that organizations should avoid using even the last four digits of SSNs unless absolutely necessary. If you're an individual born between 1987 and 2011, you should protect the last four digits of your social security number just the same as you would your entire SSN. ContentsHow do I find the last 4 digits of my Social Security number?Within each group, the serial numbers (last four (4) digits) run consecutively from 0001 through 9999.. The first set of three digits is called the Area Number.. The second set of two digits is called the Group Number.. The final set of four digits is the Serial Number.. Can someone figure out your Social with the last 4 digits?Only the last four digits of your Social Security number are truly random and unique. The first five numbers represent when and where your Social Security card was issued. Scammers can figure out the first five numbers by determining your birth date and hometown.
Is it OK to give someone the last 4 digits of SSN?Guard the Final Four.
Although most widely used and shared, the last four digits are in fact the most important to protect. These are truly random and unique; the first five numbers represent when and where your Social Security card was issued. Scammers can get those numbers by knowing your birth date and hometown.
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How to find the last 4 of someones social
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