You could be affected by one of the largest data breaches of all time and not even know it.
Recent class action lawsuits submit Jerico Pictures Inc., a background check company doing business as a national public profile, claims it was hacked earlier this year.
Ultimately, $2.9 billion in confidential information was leaked and stolen by a hacker group known as USDoD, the lawsuit alleges.
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Worse yet, those affected by a cyberattack may not even know they may be involved. National public data is reported to collect information by obtaining information about individuals from non-public sources without the individual’s knowledge or consent.
The exposed information contained varying details about nearly 3 billion people, including full names, previous and current addresses, Social Security numbers, and personal information related to living and deceased family members and relatives.
Mix and match speed of light
The breach was not previously known to the public. It’s unclear exactly when the breach occurred. Named plaintiff Christopher Hofmann said he became aware of the problem when the Identity Theft Protection Service notified him in July that his personal information had been compromised and leaked on the dark web.
The group published a “national public data” database containing leaked information on a dark web hacker forum in April and sought $3.5 million from potential buyers.
Just last month, Mashable reported another large data breach, RockYou2024, which exposed the password credentials of nearly 10 billion users. However, this data is an updated compilation of leaks and breaches from years ago.
The national public data breach, involving billions of dollars of information, appears to be one of the largest single data breaches ever, and it appears that only Yahoo’s 2013 data breach 3 billion accounts affected.
Mashable has reached out to State Public Information for comment and will update if we hear back.
