San Francisco, August 10: Data breaches have become common as threat actors use a wide range of tools, techniques, and methods to get into a company or individual's system and compromise the data. However, when a company provides all the data ready for the hackers to obtain, then it can be a problematic issue. Recently, in the United States, a massive data breach leaked data of over 3 billion users. The data was compromised by the US-based Jerico Pictures a few months ago, which, if confirmed, was one of the biggest yet. 

In April 2024, Jerico Pictures Inc. company, doing business as 'National Public Data', exposed the personal information of around 3 billion users in a data breach, according to a report by Bloomberg Law. Following this, a cybercriminal group called 'USDoD' posted a database on the dark web forum with the title "National Public Data". The post claimed that the database contained information about 2.9 billion individuals and was for sale at USD 3.5 million. Tata Technologies Cancels Project Worth INR 1,188 Crore To Develop 36 Government ITIs in Chhattisgarh,

California's resident Christopher Hofmann filed a complaint over the data breach on August 1, 2024, in the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida. The report highlighted that if the breach is confirmed, then it could be "among the biggest ever" if considered the affected numbers. The complainant was unclear about when the data was breached and why the affected users were not notified about it. 

Where Did National Public Data Get the Information?

The public records data provider, specialised in background checks and fraud prevention, scrapes the PIIs (personally identifying information) of billions of people from various non-public sources. Emphasising this, the complainant said that by practising this for business, the company did not knowingly release the data. The data breach included critical information about the people, including Social Security numbers, full names, current and past addresses, details about relatives, deceased people in the last 20 years and other types of details. India Records Fastest Growth in Intangible Investments From 2011 to 2020, Delivers Performance Comparable to Advanced Economies: WIPO Report.

With such detailed information available on the dark web of nearly 3 billion people, it poses a serious threat to them. Christopher Hofmann said he received a notification about the data breach and sale of the data on the dark web from his identity theft protection service provider on July 24. Due to such a massive data breach, he accused National Public Data of being negligent about the personal information of the individuals. He said the company should encrypt such data, create a threat-management program, and appoint a third-party assessor to evaluate the cybersecurity framework every year for the next 10 years.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 10, 2024 05:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).