Hi,

 

 

Actually it is not totally arbitrary.  The format is xxx-yy-zzzz (the separators can be hyphen, space, or no separator).  The "xxx" must be between 1 and 772.  The "yy" and "zzzz" can be anything except 00 and 0000 respectively.  Also, xxx cannot be "666" because of the controversal nature of this number especially in the SSN context.

 

 

However, what if someone is legitimately sending a number 111223333 via email, and it is not a SSN but some other important and meaningful number (and it does not matter, that it is sent in cleartext for that conversation e.g. it might be the weight in milligrams of something they ordered).  Will regular expressions alone detect whether this is a live SSN or not?  Probably not.

 

 

JW

 

On 5/20/08, Michael B. Smith <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You use regular expressions. It's an arbitrary nine-digit number. Exchange 2007 supports that too.

 

Regards,

 

Michael B. Smith

MCSE/Exchange MVP

http://TheEssentialExchange.com

 

From: exchangelist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:exchangelist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sandra K. Hemker
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 2:45 PM
To: exchangelist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ExchangeList] Re: question

 

We don't use the feature here yet.  I just know that it does exist.  I'm not sure how any system could detect it well without the dashes.

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From: exchangelist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:exchangelist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rick Boza
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 2:16 PM
To: exchangelist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ExchangeList] Re: question

Out of curiousity - how well does it handle malformed SSNs? 

What I mean is, assuming it looks for strings formatted as :

###-##-####

But what happens if it is formatted as #########   ?

I know Postini has some great capability - I'm just wondering how comprehensive the filtering of SSN's really works out to be.

You know what they say, if you try to idiot-proof the system, someone will always build a better idiot.


Rick

On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 2:01 PM, Sandra K. Hemker <sanhem@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

We use POSTINI spam\virus filter which is a subscribed to service and they give you the ability to set up OUTBOUND content management where it will search outgoing email for SSN's.

 

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From: exchangelist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:exchangelist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alex
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 11:09 AM
To: exchangelist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ExchangeList] question

 

 

is there anybody out there using anything that would stop social security numbers from being emailed thru exchange 2003 thanks for your time in advance