DATA BREACH ALERT

A new lawsuit exposes a massive private data breach, and everyone is urged to take action to protect their financial data. The facts surrounding the suit aren’t widely publicized, but it alleges that a massive data breach has exposed the personal information of countless individuals, including sensitive data such as addresses, dates of birth, names of family members, and potentially the Social Security numbers of every American.  On April 8, a cybercriminal group by the name of USDoD posted a database entitled “National Public Data” on a dark web forum, claiming to have the personal data of 2.9 billion people, according to the complaint filed earlier this month in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which said the group put the database up for sale for $3.5 million.

If confirmed, the breach could be among the biggest ever, in terms of the number of individuals affected.  The class action lawsuit alleges that the hacking group USDoD stole records from National Public Data, which is a company that provides personal information to employers, private investigators, and others for background checking purposes.  The breach allegedly occurred in April but the lawsuit was only filed this month.  US DoD then leaked the information for free on a hacker forum as reported by “bleeping computer,” which is a news agency that specializes in cybersecurity.

Theresa Murray, the Consumer Watchdog director for the US public information research group, described the situation as a “5 alarm wake up call for consumers” to take protective measures.  Experts urge consumers to take immediate action to protect themselves and one key recommendation is to freeze credit files at the three major credit bureaus, including Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. See page 13 of our 2018 Client Update https://kempelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Newsletter-Winter-2018.pdf) . These measures are intended to prevent fraudsters and bad actors from obtaining credit with your information or otherwise accessing personal financial information.  Additionally, consumers are advised to use tracking services that monitor the dark web for their personal information and to implement two-factor authentication on all accounts, to enhance security.

Please note that since we originally advised clients of these threats in 2018, credit bureaus and agencies no longer charge a fee to freeze your credit due to the prevalence of these hacks, so there is no reason not to take protect yourself and your financial future.

If you have any questions regarding these threats, please let us know. We are pleased to be of service!

Joe Kempe