Re: Social Security Number in Hidden field

[Antti Virtanen <Antti.Virtanen () solita fi>]

For a similar reason I have also implemented such a feature once. The
customer was fully aware that the information is not really safe, but they
wanted to prevent casual observer from seeing such information. In modern
office environments the observer doesn’t need to be in close proximity and
I think this is a valid concern.

In my case the sensitive fields were “encrypted", but with a weak
algorithm. Vulnerable to a malicious admin or MITM, but this was the least
worry in such scenario.


-- 
Antti Virtanen
Software Architect







On 24/11/14 06:31, "Lorne Kates" <lkates () gmail com> wrote:

> I once coded an admin page like this.  Admins had to have access to
> SSNs (or SIN, since it was a Canadian company) of applicants.  But
> they didn't want the SSN on the screen all the time.  So a button was
> added that de-masked the SSN when clicked.
>
> The company was fully aware that visually hiding the SSN still meant
> the information was on the page, in the HTTP request and response, in
> View Source, etc.  The only thing they were worried about was casual
> shoulder surfers seeing an SSN that they shouldn't.  The only time
> someone would reveal it was if it was needed, and only then if they
> were the only ones looking at the screen.
>
> The field was also editable.  It was blank when filling out a new
> form, and had a masked SSN otherwise (but if revealed, could be
> edited)
>
>
>
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