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BILLIONS of people could be at risk of one of the largest data breaches in history.
In addition to the data breaches, social security numbers are also at risk.
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According to Bloomberg Law, a background-check company named Jerico Pictures Inc., which did business as National Public Data exposed 2.9 billion people’s information in an April data breach.
The breach was said to have taken place on April 8 after cybercrime group USDoD posted a database called National Public Data on the dark web.
The database claimed to have the personal data of nearly three billion individuals.
While it was originally posted in April, a complaint was only filed on August 1 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Read More on Data Breaches
The complaint claims the group put the database on sale for $3.5 million.
This could be one of the largest breaches in history if proven accurate.
At this time, it is unclear when the breach actually occurred.
Additionally, the provider has yet to warn those who might’ve been affected.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs weren’t aware they provided their data to the company.
The personal data includes current and past addresses, full names, and information on family members.
Most importantly, some of the data includes exposed social security numbers.
DATA NEGLIGENCE
Among the billions of individuals affected, California resident Christopher Hofmann received a notification in July stating his information was leaked onto the dark web.
“He accused National Public Data of negligence, unjust enrichment, and breaches of fiduciary duty and third-party beneficiary contract,” as per the outlet.
According to the complaint, Hofmann is asking the court to make the National Public Data wipe any personal information of the affected individuals.
PASSWORD RULES – DON’T BREAK THEM
Here are some important tricks to follow, as revealed by Keeper Security…
- Make sure to use a combination of upper and lowercase letters. It’s much easier to “crack” a password if it only uses lowercase letters.
- Never include personal data like your birthday, street address, and certainly not your name.
- Ensure that every password has at least 12 characters. This will significantly increase the time it would take a hacker to crack your login.
- Include symbols whenever you can. Not all services allow this, but if you can add question marks, exclamation marks, hash symbols, and slashes, your password will be far safer.
- Ensure that you’re using varied and non-sequential numbers. So, rather than having 1234 at the end of your password, mix them in and use a random order.
- Avoid, where possible, using words found in the dictionary in your password.
Additionally, Hofmann requested to encrypt any and all data that will be collected in the future.
The plaintiff also suggested a series of requirements to prevent another data breach.
Hofmann asked that “National Public Data segment data, conduct database scanning, implement a threat-management program, and appoint a third-party assessor to conduct an evaluation of its cybersecurity frameworks annually for 10 years.”
The U.S. Sun has reached out to the attorneys involved in the case for comment.
Meanwhile, iPhone and Android users should be aware of SIM-swapping hacks.
And a warning was issued for Android users to update their phones as soon as possible to avoid a potential bug.
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