PERSONAL DATA FROM HISTORY’S LARGEST SECURITY BREACH WAS RECENTLY MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE
The hacking group USDoD claimed to have stolen personal records of 2.9 billion people in April from National Public Data, an organization that offers personal information to employers, private investigators, staffing agencies, and others doing background checks. Recently a member of the group released most of the information for free on an online data marketplace.
The breach contains full names, social security numbers, phone numbers, alternate names, birth dates, addresses, and more personal data, and could include every single American.
Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the U.S. Public Information Research Group, said the data is effectively a dossier on ‘all of us’, and that if people didn’t take precautions before they absolutely should now.
National Public Data has sent emails informing the public that they are “aware of certain third-party claims about consumer data and are investigating these issues.” The company has said it is purging the entire database as a whole of any and all entries, essentially opting everyone out. They said they deleted any non-public personal information though may be required to retain certain records to comply with legal obligations.