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Really sensitive personal data has been hacked and leaked online. Social security numbers and home addresses for virtually everybody in the U.S., U.K., and Canada were compromised. Many of the 2.7 billion records are duplicates and outdated but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous.
Private data now public
If you’re going to target a company for hack attack, National Public Data is the one to hit. They’re the clearinghouse “which collects and sells” private information “for use in background checks by private investigators and others.”
They have all sorts of sensitive information squirreled away on you without your knowledge.
As reported initially by Bleeping Computer, “a hacker attempted to sell this data.” It turned out to be only 2.7 billion records, rather than the 2.9 billion they advertised for sale at $3.5 million.
🔥🚨BREAKING NEWS: Hackers may have stolen every American Social Security number and physical address from National Public Data, around 2.9 BILLION records. This is one of the largest data breeches of all time. pic.twitter.com/KOayYHHlcC
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) August 14, 2024
Now that it’s out there, the experts confirm it really does contain “records of every individual in each of the three countries.” More than one if you ever moved.
Since the sale attempt, there were “various partial leaks.” Since nobody bought it, and nobody paid a ransom to keep it private, “a full copy of the database has now been made available for download.”
You can access your own data if you want to take time to wait for the file to transfer. If you can find the links that is. Apparently, hackers can get them easily but the general public is being stonewalled.
Two text files
The stolen data is in a set of two simple text files “totaling 277GB and containing nearly 2.7 billion plain text records.”
The pundits at BleepingComputer can’t confirm “everybody” in America is listed, “numerous people have confirmed to us that it included their and family members’ legitimate information, including those who are deceased.” It’s all basic but crucial information nobody wants thieves to know.
Each record lists “a person’s name, mailing addresses, and social security number, with some records including additional information, like other names associated with the person.” None of this data, the experts emphasize, is encrypted.
BREAKING: Hackers may have stolen the Social Security numbers of every American from National Public Data, around 2.9 BILLION records pic.twitter.com/W36wsu1iql
— wallstreetbets (@wallstreetbets) August 14, 2024
The site providing access “notes that the number is far higher than the combined populations of the three countries because there is a separate record for each address at which an individual is known to have lived.”
Because some of the supposedly current information has already been confirmed to be outdated, “it’s believed that it may have been obtained from an old backup of the database, rather than the live version.”
Not that it makes a whole lot of difference. Now more than ever, “we need to remain vigilant to phishing attacks, which can be made to seem more convincing when messages include personal data.“
