alt Hacker NewsI don't think understanding is the issue. It doesn't take a lot of tech knowledge to understand "the SSNs were all being sent, they were just hidden poorly."
What we need is fewer vindictive, fragile people in positions of power. Unfortunately this is an unsolved problem.
The problem with the people in power is that they were the ones seeking to be in power. If, instead, the mechanism was by lottery, thrusting the reigns of power upon any random citizen, the system wouldn't select for people who were also vindictive and fragile as a consequence of being egotistical enough to seek power.