The Hack Could Have Exposed the Data of Three Billion People
Nearly three billion of us may have had our personal data compromised in the April hack. Given that there are just over eight billion people living on the planet today , this means that more than a third of the world’s population was affected.
According to Bloomberg Law , the exposure was the fault of Jerico Pictures Inc., acting as a background check company for National Public Data , according to a lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit alleges that on April 8 of this year, the hacker group USDoD uploaded a database simply called “National Public Data” to the darknet site Breach Forums. This 277 GB database allegedly contained information on 2.9 billion people. This data could be yours for $3.5 million.
National Public Data (the company, not the database) is reportedly collecting data from billions of us from “closed” sources without the knowledge of those who own the data. This data is also not anonymous: it includes information such as Social Security numbers, home addresses (both current and former), full names and ancestry – data that can easily be linked directly to you.
The lawsuit was filed by one Christopher Hofmann of California, who says he learned of the practice after his privacy office alerted him to a data breach. As part of the lawsuit, Hofmann wants several things: a payout, a National Public Records Office to delete all data collected from affected users, and for the company to implement changes to prevent this from happening again, namely to protect future collected data through the lawsuit. encryption.
It’s unclear how National Public Data was able to obtain some of this information, especially sensitive data such as Social Security numbers. The details of the hack are also unconfirmed: However, Bloomberg Law states that if confirmed, this breach would be one of the largest in history and could rival Yahoo! a disruption that affected three billion people.
What can you do?
These situations are difficult because the breached data was not stolen from a service that you actively use. Therefore, you cannot change your password or close your account. Instead, it may be better to seek professional services.
If you don’t already have one, consider signing up for a credit monitoring service. National Public Data does not warn affected users: Only a service that searches for stolen data online can tell you whether your data, such as your Social Security number, was included in this breach. From here, the service can guide you through further steps. PCMag, our sister site, lists the best identity theft protection services , including: