National Public Data data breach reportedly affects everyone in US, UK, Canada

National Public Data data breach overview: 

• Who: A threat actor allegedly leaked nearly 2.7 billion public records containing personal information on the Breached hacking forum. 
• Why: Hackers allegedly stole the information during a data breach involving National Public Data.
• Where: The public records leak reportedly may affect every individual in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. 

A threat actor leaked nearly 2.7 billion public records containing personal information belonging to U.S., U.K. and Canadian citizens on a hacking forum earlier this month. 

The public records, which hackers allegedly stole during a data breach involving National Public Data, include names, Social Security numbers, physical addresses and other possible information, Bleeping Computer reports.

National Public Data reportedly collects and sells personal information to be used for conducting background checks, obtaining criminal records and helping with private investigations. 

The company, which uses the information it collects to create user profiles for individuals in the United States and other countries, believed to obtain the data by scraping it from public sources, according to Bleeping Computer. 

The leaked data reportedly includes two text files totaling 277GB and consisting of almost 2.7 billion plaintext records. 

Threat actors claim to have stolen record of every individual in US, UK, Canada

In April, a threat actor known as USDod reportedly claimed to have stolen 2.9 billion records containing information belonging to every individual in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada and attempted to sell the data for $3.5 million, Bleeping Computer reports.  

USDod was previously linked to trying to sell non-profit organization InfraGard’s user database for $50,000 in December 2023, Bleeping Computer says.

Since USDod’s claim, several threat actors reportedly released partial copies of the allegedly stolen data, with the leaks containing different numbers of records and, at times, data. 

A threat actor by the name “Fenice, ”posted the latest leak on the Breached hacking forum, Bleeping Computer says. Fenice reportedly claims a threat actor known as “SXUL,” not USDod, obtained the data. 

Anyone who lives in the United States is likely affected in some way by the leak, according to Bleeping Computer, which reports the data contains hundreds of millions of Social Security numbers. 

Consumers filed several class actions recently against companies in the wake of data breaches, including Intuit, Ticketmaster, Live Nation and AT&T. The companies allegedly fail to prevent the data breaches by having proper security safeguards in place. 

Are you concerned your data was exposed in the National Public Data data breach? Let us know in the comments.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Gerber announces recall for baby cereal due to bacterial contamination
• George Weston, Loblaw reach $500M settlement in packaged bread price-fixing class action
• 2 dead in listeria outbreak related to plant-based milk recall
• Bissell announces recall for 3M+ Steam Shot cleaners