By now, you’ve probably heard about a massive data breach that compromised the Social Security numbers and other data of millions of Americans and could now be in the hands of hackers.
The cache of data is made up of 2.9 billion records including names, addresses, Social Security numbers and relatives dating back at least three decades, according to law firm Schubert, Jonckheer & Kolbe.
The San Francisco firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against National Public Data, which aggregates data to offer background searches. The lawsuit alleges that the company did not adequately protect the information, allowing it to be stolen and offered for sale on the dark web.
People “now face years of constant surveillance of their financial and personal records, monitoring, and loss of rights,” because of the breach, according to the the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and first reported on by Bloomberg Law.
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How did this massive data breach happen?
According to the suit, cybercriminal group USDoD accessed the network of National Public Data (also known as Jerico Pictures, Inc., of Coral Springs, Florida) and stole unencrypted personal information. Around April 8, 2024, the group posted a database on the dark web, claiming it contained information on about 2.9 billion people and putting it up for sale at $3.5 million.
The plaintiff in the case, Christopher Hofmann of…
