One of the worst data leaks in the history of cybersecurity has just been exposed

National Public Data (also known as Jerico Pictures) - one of the world's leading providers of public records data for background checks and fraud prevention - has suffered one of the largest data breaches in the world. The most serious material in history. Initial investigation results show that the scandal affected 2.9 billion personal records with sensitive data leaked such as social security numbers, full names, addresses, cities, counties, and states. , ZIP code and many other important information. Worse still, security experts are still unable to determine how this breach occurred in the first place.

Before diving into the matter, it's worth noting that National Public Data has yet to officially confirm the breach, so a lot of the information comes only from related lawsuits or the hacker group itself.

Accordingly, the class action lawsuit filed against National Public Data revealed that some important data, such as addresses, full names and related information of customers, were allegedly leaked to the Internet. dark web. The data even includes information about their relatives who died decades ago.

National Public Data allegedly collected data from non-public sources to conduct personal background checks. The investigation revealed that many people did not know that the company owned this information in the first place.

This cyber attack was carried out by a hacker group called USDoD. The entire personal data warehouse of nearly 3 billion people was sold by this group for 3.5 million dollars on dark web databases.

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The concern is that those affected may not be aware that their data has been exposed. This sensitive information can be abused by cybercriminals to commit identity theft, open fraudulent credit accounts, borrow money or file fake tax returns, and face trouble. Prolonged legal trouble.

This may be the most serious data scandal since the 2013 Yahoo data breach, which also saw 3 billion users' personal information leaked.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 10 August 2024