Hackers have stolen an unprecedented amount of sensitive personal information from billions of people in America and around the world.
In April, the notorious global hacking group, USDoD, stole the data from Public Data (NPD).
According to reports, a member of the group y released almost all of the data for free on an online marketplace for stolen personal data.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the stolen information includes possibly every Social Security number in America and other sensitive data.
The haul was discovered in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
According to the complaint, USDoD previously put the personal data up for sale for $3.5 million.
Per The LA Times
According to a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the hacking group USDoD claimed in April to have stolen personal records of 2.9 billion people from National Public Data, which offers personal information to employers, private investigators, staffing agencies and others doing background checks.
The group offered in a forum for hackers to sell the data, which included records from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, for $3.5 million, a cybersecurity expert said in a post on X.
Last week, a purported member of USDoD identified only as Felice told the hacking forum that they were offering “the full NPD database,” according to a screenshot taken by BleepingComputer. The information consists of about 2.7 billion records, each of which includes a person’s full name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and phone number, along with alternate names and birth dates, Felice claimed.
Consumer watchdog director for the U.S. Public Information Research Group said that if the USDoD is telling the truth, this hack is much more severe than previous ones.
“If this in fact is pretty much the whole dossier on all of us, it certainly is much more concerning,” Murray said.
“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.”
NPD has not yet officially notified people about the alleged breach
However, NPD is telling people who contacted it via email that “we are aware of certain third-party claims about consumer data and are investigating these issues.”
Hackers could also rig vote counts in November if they access such personal information.
