What to do if your personal data is among the billions of records included in the National Public Data leak - and it probably is!

by Damon C. Williams, USA Today Network, August 16, 2024
 

Chances are, you're among the more than two billion people who had their personal data stolen from National Public Data in a massive breach, and the leaked information is now available for criminals to poach fresh victims.

Here's what was leaked in the National Public Data breach, and everything else you need to know about the leak.
 

What happened with National Public Data?

Earlier this year, cyber criminals made off with a raft of individualized personal data of roughly 2.9 billion people for National Public Data. Including Social Security Numbers!

National Public Data is a leading national provider of background and credit checks.

After several months of possessing the data, the group behind the heist allegedly listed the files for sale on the dark web.

National Public Data acknowledged the breach on its website.

"There appears to have been a data security incident that may have involved some of your personal information," read National Public Data's update. "The incident is believed to have involved a third-party bad actor that was trying to hack into data in late December 2023, with potential leaks of certain data in April 2024 and summer 2024.

"The information that was suspected of being breached contained name, email address, phone number, social security number, and mailing address(es)."

What to do if you think your data was included in the National Public Data breach

National Public Data did not offer a direct remedy on its website, but instead suggested that monitor your credit report and stay in contact with the three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. They also suggest that you freeze your credit card if you think you have been victimized by the National Public Data breach.

"As a first step, we recommend that you closely monitor your financial accounts and if you see any unauthorized activity, you should promptly contact your financial institution," National Public Data advised. "As a second step, you may want to contact the three U.S. credit reporting agencies to obtain a free credit report from each by calling 1-877-322-8228 or by logging onto www.annualcreditreport.com."

What National Public Data is doing about the data breach

On its website, National Public Data officials said the company is working toward finding the source of the breach and fortifying its systems.

"We cooperated with law enforcement and governmental investigators and conducted a review of the potentially affected records and will try to notify you if there are further significant developments applicable to you," read National Public Data's website. "We have also implemented additional security measures in efforts to prevent the reoccurrence of such a breach and to protect our systems."
 

A complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida claims that a cybercriminal group called USDoD hacked Florida-based company National Public Data, which stores personal information.

The hackers put the database up for sale for $3.5 million on a dark web forum.

More than 1,500 data breaches occurred in the first half of 2024, affecting about 1 billion people, according to a recent report by the Identity Theft Resource Center. That’s 14 percent higher than the previous year.

AT&T notified millions of customers in April that their information had been stolen following a breach in which customer data was illegally downloaded from its workspace on a third-party cloud platform.

Ticketmaster was also hacked in July. A cybercriminal group stole the personal details of 560 million customers and demanded a substantial ransomware payment to prevent the information from being sold to other parties.

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