Hackers may have stolen the Social Security numbers of many Americans. Here's what to know.
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Lawsuit claims hackers accessed "billions" of records, including Social Security numbers, by breaching background check company.

A new lawsuit is claiming hackers have gained access to the personal information of “billions of individuals,” including their Social Security numbers, current and past addresses and the names of siblings and parents — personal data that could allow fraudsters to infiltrate financial accounts or take out loans in their names.

The allegation arose in a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Christopher Hofmann, a California resident who claims his identity theft protection service alerted him that his personal information had been leaked to the dark web by the “nationalpublicdata.com” breach. The lawsuit was earlier reported by Bloomberg Law.

The breach allegedly occurred around April 2024, with a hacker group called USDoD exfiltrating the unencrypted personal information of billions of individuals from a company called National Public Data (NPD), a background check company, according to the lawsuit. Earlier this month, a hacker leaked a version of the stolen NPD data for free on a hacking forum, tech site Bleeping Computer reported.

  • n2burns
    9·
    3 months ago

    that provides background checks for employers, investigators and other businesses that want to check people’s backgrounds.

    Great editing once again brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department!