Cyber Threat Radar –A newly proposed class action data breach lawsuit claims that approximately 2.9 billion individuals may have had their personal information compromised.
According to the lawsuit, the purported breach in April 2024 took place when a background check firm operating under the name National Public Data, which is owned by Jerico Pictures Inc., did not adequately protect the information it collected. This company offers immediate search capabilities for billions of records.
Data Breach Affects Every American Citizen
If this is accurate, it is possible that all Americans have had sensitive personal information exposed, which may include:
- Full Names
- Current And Previous Addresses,
- Social Security Numbers
- Details About Family Members
“Should this information prove to be correct, it would imply that the entire population of the USA is impacted,” commented Tim Jenkins, Head of Cyber Defense Research, SentryBay. “The revelation of this recent breach should raise significant concerns among consumers. It would be surprising if there are individuals who have not already been affected by a data breach of this nature, given the extensive number of similar incidents that have occurred.”
Scraping Personally Identifiable Information
The complaint indicates that the specifics regarding the timing and method of the breach remain uncertain, and as of the filing date, the provider has yet to notify or alert the individuals impacted by the incident.
National Public Data operates by scraping personally identifiable information from billions of individuals through non-public sources, which implies that the plaintiffs did not willingly share their data with the company, according to the complaint.
Large-Scale Data Breaches On The Rise
The Yahoo data breach in 2013 potentially compromised every account held by the company, affecting around 3 billion individuals. Meanwhile, the Equifax data breach in 2017 is believed to have impacted approximately 50% of the U.S. population.
