Hackers May Have Stolen Every American's Social Security Number From Background Check Firm
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Friday, September 6, 2024 11:50
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Billions of records that purportedly contain personal data of every American, Canadian and Briton has reportedly found its way to a shadowy online identify-theft marketplace -- where it's been served up at no charge to legions of criminals.
In April, a notorious hacker group called "USDoD" claimed it had obtained 2.9 billion personal data records that it stole from National Public Data, an obscure background check firm that is a DBA brand of a Jerico Pictures Inc in Coral Springs, Florida. Claiming the data covered every person in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, the hackers put the trove up for sale at $3.5 million.
In the following months, other groups published distinct subsets of the data haul, Bleeping Computer reports. However, on August 6, someone claiming to have obtained breached National Public Data information via another person or entity called "SXUL," served up 2.7 billion records in two files totaling 277GB -- for free.
A screenshot captures a post to a hacking forum offering free access to the National Public Data personal-information trove (via Bleeping Computer)
Each person contained in the database will have a separate record associated with each of their known residential addresses. "This data [set] may be outdated, as it does not contain the current address for any of the people we checked, potentially indicating that the data was taken from an old backup," reports Bleeping Computer. Nonetheless, "If you live in the US, this data breach has likely leaked some of your personal information."
Cybersecurity firm Pentester has created an online tool you can use to check if your personal information is included in the National Public Data breach. To use it, you need only enter your name, state and birth year. This Tyler Durden found his date of birth, mailing address, phone number and Social Security number are readily available to bad actors digging into the trove.
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Jerico Pictures in US District Court in Fort Lauderdale. According to the 50-page complaint, National Public Data "scrapes the [personally identifiable information] of potentially billions of individuals from non-public sources" without their consent or knowledge, and failed its "legal and equitable duties...to protect and safeguard that information from unauthorized access."
According to a page on National Public Data's website that addresses the vast data theft, "the information that was suspected of being breached contained name, email address, phone number, social security number, and mailing address(es)."
“For somebody who’s really suave at it, the possibilities are really endless," Public Information Research Group consumer watchdog director Teresa Murray told the Los Angeles Times. She warns that identify thieves could combine the National Public Data information with data from previous hacks to "cause all kinds of chaos, commit all kinds of crimes, steal all kinds of money.
Here are a few ways to reduce your risk of being victimized:
Freeze your credit files. To make it harder for criminals to open new accounts in your name, you can direct three major credit rating agencies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- to lock down your credit reports. Keep in mind, that will freeze your files for you too, so you'll need to unfreeze them when you're seeking credit or doing something else necessitating a credit check.
Activate two-factor authentication for existing accounts. These protocols require an extra login step beyond just an email and password -- such as a code that's texted to you, or a code you obtain from an authenticator app linked to the account. This is important because criminals can use your leaked data to reset your login credentials.
Strengthen your password game. Use many-charactered passwords, and avoid using the same one for multiple accounts -- especially the high-stakes ones. Consider a password-manageNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Meh...
Just more Scare Theater, IMO.
Your social security number is already everywhere. The fact we use the last 4 digits of it for any sort of identification over the phone or online is just Security Theater in the reverse.
I worked at RGIS Inventory when I was 18/19 years old. Since we didn't have a home base and we got paid once we started work at the individual stores, there obviously couldn't be any time clock to punch in on. We were required to sign in by putting down our full name and our full social security number. For all I know, my name and SS# are sitting in a box in a corporate warehouse several hundred times over. (I bet they haven't done that for 20 years now).
Besides... All of this data wasn't given to this data brokerage firm by the government or by individual citizens. They were able to collate the data because we put it out there ourselves. And that might be the best news of all because people are stupid and people put a lot of wrong information in places. Half of that data is probably worthless, making 100% of the data questionable in value.
This is really just a story of one criminal hacking another criminal.
Change your passwords on your bank accounts and credit cards if you feel worried about it. Use two factor authentication on important stuff if you weren't already using it.
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Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President. 
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Massive Indian Army Network Using AI and Fake Accounts Operating Without Detection for Three Years
https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-reports/india-ai-fake-accounts-n
etwork
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The problem, SIX ... and everyone else ... is that that they'll access your CURRENT accounts. Those you can protect with dual factor ID or whatever..
The problem is that with all of your relevant info, somebody can apply for a credit card, loan, or even mortgage using your current credit rating.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.
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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
The problem, SIX ... and everyone else ... is that that they'll access your CURRENT accounts. Those you can protect with dual factor ID or whatever..
The problem is that with all of your relevant info, somebody can apply for a credit card, loan, or even mortgage using your current credit rating.
Where do you think they got all that info from?
It's already out there. You put it out there.
All 3rd party data brokerage firms do is scour the internet for information that we've put out there and they package it all up without knowing if it's good info or bad info.
How are they going to access your current accounts with this information whether or not you already use two-factor authentication? They didn't hack your bank and get your login information. They didn't hack into your email to get the ability to reset passwords on accounts that you bank at and do credit on.
Do you use the same password on every site that you use on your banks? If so, you probably should have changed those a long time ago. Somebody hacked linkedin many years ago and they got my password there. All I could do was laugh when I saw it. Somebody sent me an email showing me they had my linkedin account password and they regretted to inform me that they used that password to get into all of my accounts and were demanding a ransom. There was no doubt they actually had my old linkedin password since that was the password, but they didn't get into anything else. Given that they emailed me, I'm sure they tried that password on other things like my email account, but it didn't work anywhere else.
As for applying for credit... I don't really believe that's happening. I've been hearing that horror story for 20 years yet I've never met anyone who ever had somebody else taking out a ton of credit in their name. These leaks happen all the time to one degree or another.
If that were really possible, this story is old enough where we'd have already heard of 10,000 people and counting who have had their credit ruined.
I'm honestly more curious how people have been able to use my already established credit cards from time to time over the years. I've caught them 4 times. It's been anywhere from a $4 charge from some random store at an airport, to somebody charging up over $3k with over $2.5 of that going to Macy's and Nordstrom's alone. Idiot paid his cable bill with it too though, so I hope they got what they deserved.
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Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
The problem, SIX ... and everyone else ... is that that they'll access your CURRENT accounts. Those you can protect with dual factor ID or whatever..
The problem is that with all of your relevant info, somebody can apply for a credit card, loan, or even mortgage using your current credit rating.
SIX: Where do you think they got all that info from?
It's already out there. You put it out there.
All 3rd party data brokerage firms do is scour the internet for information that we've put out there and they package it all up without knowing if it's good info or bad info.
No.
Social Security numbers are NOT public information. They aren't out on the Internet waiting to be hoovered up. At least, they're not supposed to be. And even when they exist on databases here and there, the databases are too small to be bothered with.
The problem comes in when data handling is contracted out to larger firms. Those firms get that information from everywhere... loan applications, rental applications, credit card applications, job applications....
What a nice fat juicy target!
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How are they going to access your current accounts with this information whether or not you already use two-factor authentication? They didn't hack your bank and get your login information. They didn't hack into your email to get the ability to reset passwords on accounts that you bank at and do credit on.
Theoretically they can't, but I know someone who might have been hacked thru public WiFi.
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Do you use the same password on every site that you use on your banks? If so, you probably should have changed those a long time ago. Somebody hacked linkedin many years ago and they got my password there. All I could do was laugh when I saw it. Somebody sent me an email showing me they had my linkedin account password and they regretted to inform me that they used that password to get into all of my accounts and were demanding a ransom. There was no doubt they actually had my old linkedin password since that was the password, but they didn't get into anything else. Given that they emailed me, I'm sure they tried that password on other things like my email account, but it didn't work anywhere else.
True. If you manage your passwords should not be a problem.
Oh BTW I got a funny email about how "they" knew my browsing habits and how I was gonna be in BIG TROUBLE unless I sent them $$. I just laughed and deleted the email.
Quote:Well, I've known two at work, and it was a nightmare. One nobody knows how it happened, the other was just good old fashioned mail theft.
As for applying for credit... I don't really believe that's happening. I've been hearing that horror story for 20 years yet I've never met anyone who ever had somebody else taking out a ton of credit in their name.
Maybe most of the people you know don't have good credit scores?
Quote:You can't squeeze blood from the millions of turnips out there.
These leaks happen all the time to one degree or another.
If that were really possible, this story is old enough where we'd have already heard of 10,000 people and counting who have had their credit ruined.
Quote:
I'm honestly more curious how people have been able to use my already established credit cards from time to time over the years. I've caught them 4 times. It's been anywhere from a $4 charge from some random store at an airport, to somebody charging up over $3k with over $2.5 of that going to Macy's and Nordstrom's alone. Idiot paid his cable bill with it too though, so I hope they got what they deserved.
Someone probably copied your credit card info including the security code and sold it online. I found a charge for baby items purchased in London ... LONDON!... paid for in pounds, with the foreign exchange all neatly calculated! How the hell did the credit card company let THAT one thru???
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
The problem, SIX ... and everyone else ... is that that they'll access your CURRENT accounts. Those you can protect with dual factor ID or whatever..
The problem is that with all of your relevant info, somebody can apply for a credit card, loan, or even mortgage using your current credit rating.
SECOND: Where do you think they got all that info from?
It's already out there. You put it out there.
All 3rd party data brokerage firms do is scour the internet for information that we've put out there and they package it all up without knowing if it's good info or bad info.
No.
Social Security numbers are NOT public information. They aren't out on the Internet waiting to be hoovered up. At least, they're not supposed to be. And even when they exist on databases here and there, the databases are too small to be bothered with.
The problem comes in when data handling is contracted out to larger firms. Those firms get that information from everywhere... loan applications, rental applications, credit card applications, job applications....
What a nice fat juicy target!
Yeah. They're not public information. That doesn't mean it isn't far too easy for people to get it. There have been hacks of one level or another like this all the time. When they hit something like a bank or credit card provider or a hospital, it's probably a lot more valuable because that would be databases with current users along with their SS#'s. It's all out there. I'm sure my grandma's was all out there even though she never once used the internet in her life and she refused to.
Quote:Quote:
How are they going to access your current accounts with this information whether or not you already use two-factor authentication? They didn't hack your bank and get your login information. They didn't hack into your email to get the ability to reset passwords on accounts that you bank at and do credit on.
Theoretically they can't, but I know someone who might have been hacked thru public WiFi.
Maybe. I refuse to use public wi-fi. Easy for me to do with no smartphone though.
Quote:Quote:
Do you use the same password on every site that you use on your banks? If so, you probably should have changed those a long time ago. Somebody hacked linkedin many years ago and they got my password there. All I could do was laugh when I saw it. Somebody sent me an email showing me they had my linkedin account password and they regretted to inform me that they used that password to get into all of my accounts and were demanding a ransom. There was no doubt they actually had my old linkedin password since that was the password, but they didn't get into anything else. Given that they emailed me, I'm sure they tried that password on other things like my email account, but it didn't work anywhere else.
True. If you manage your passwords should not be a problem.
Oh BTW I got a funny email about how "they" knew my browsing habits and how I was gonna be in BIG TROUBLE unless I sent them $$. I just laughed and deleted the email.
Oh yeah. lol. Get stuff like this from time to time.
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As for applying for credit... I don't really believe that's happening. I've been hearing that horror story for 20 years yet I've never met anyone who ever had somebody else taking out a ton of credit in their name. [/quote} Well, I've known two at work, and it was a nightmare. One nobody knows how it happened, the other was just good old fashioned mail theft.
Maybe most of the people you know don't have good credit scores?
Well mine is 828 or 832 depending on which agency you ask. I'm envious of both my dad and step-mom who are both rocking an 850. I don't think I'll ever get that because I never had a mortgage and haven't had a car loan in going on 25 years. My friends all own
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