In what could be one of the most significant potential data breaches ever, nearly 3 billion people's records, including their Social Security numbers, names, and birthdates, have reportedly been stolen, according to Bloomberg Law.
A background check company, National Public Data, is accused in a class action lawsuit of potentially having exposed the personal data of around 3 billion individuals in an April data breach.
If this hack is confirmed, it will be one of the most significant cases of identity theft ever regarding the number of affected individuals. Back in 2013, a breach of Yahoo! exposed data from nearly 3 billion people.
The attack may have disclosed some of the following personal information: Social Security numbers, full names, past addresses spanning decades, and details of family relatives.
According to the named plaintiff in the lawsuit, Christopher Hofmann, he accused the National Public Data of negligence, unjust enrichment, and breaches of fiduciary duty and third-party beneficiary contract.
The plaintiffs didn't knowingly give National Public Data their data. While conducting its business, the company scrapes information about people from non-public sources for its data collection. They then offer this personal information to employers, private investigators, and others doing background checks.
The plaintiffs are asking for National Public Data for monetary compensation and for a series of regulatory requirements that include purging information from all individuals affected and encrypting all the data they collect going forward, along with threat-management detection and third-party assessment every ten years.
The breach of so many individuals could spawn an uprise in identity theft, fraud, and other crimes.
According to Teresa Murray, a consumer watchdog director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
“If this, in fact, is pretty much the whole dossier on all of us, it certainly is much more concerning” than prior breaches, Murray stated in an interview. “And if people weren’t taking precautions in the past, which they should have been doing, this should be a five-alarm wake-up call for them.”
If you suspect that your Social Security number or any other personal identity information has been leaked, consider freezing your credit files for free at the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. This prevents cybercriminals from using your information to open up new credit card lines or other financial accounts in your name. Just remember to temporarily unfreeze the accounts if you want to create a new bank account or apply for something requiring a credit check.
GOV+ also helps you protect yourself against identity theft, with instant alerts about fraudulent activity, such as monitoring your personal information and government documents, including Social Security cards, passports, driver’s licenses, and address changes. Also, with GOV+ credit monitoring, stay on top of changes to your lines of credit and get up to $1 million in Identity Theft Insurance coverage.
