NEW DEPT OF THE NAVY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER REDUCTION PLAN

To help combat the risks of identity theft of Department of the Navy personnel, the DON began procedures in 2009 to reduce or eliminate the use of Social Security numbers in DON business wherever possible.  A new DON SSN reduction plan was published on 15 March 2017 updating DON policy to include new requirements for all DON organizations.  The new policy can be seen in full at DON CIO SSN Reduction Plan.  All personnel and departments that collect, use, transmit or store SSNs should review and follow the updated policy immediately.

This policy applies to all DON personnel, including contractors, and includes all data managed or retained in government or contractor-owned or operated information systems. Affected SSN use includes use of the SSN alone or in association with other personally identifying information (PII), such as an individual's name, and the SSN in any form, including but not limited to, truncated, masked, or encrypted. This is a DON-wide effort that requires the attention and cooperation of senior leaders and compliance from all Sailors, Marines, DON Civilians, and support contractors. (To ensure that proper safeguards are in place, all DON contracts must include the Federal Acquisition Regulations clauses found at HTTP://WWW.DONCIO.NAVY.MIL/CONTENTVIEW.ASPX?ID=5975 and must be implemented prior to any collection, use, display, or maintenance of SSNs.)

ACTION: The DON SSN Reduction Plan requires the following actions: First, implementation of new policy to further reduce SSN use in the DON, and second, review and justification of all continued use of SSNs in official DON forms, IT systems, applications, shared drives, web portals, and other collections associated with DON-controlled business processes.