Months after a trove of personal data it had collected was stolen, US data broker National Public Data has filed for bankruptcy. In its filing the company admits that the number of people impacted by the data theft is much higher than previously reported.
Earlier this year personal data belonging to “hundreds of millions” of people was stolen from US data broker National Public Data. The company admitted to the scope of the theft in a bankruptcy filing. Several outlets are reporting on the story.
National Public Data indicated that the stolen data included names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers and social security numbers. National Public Data’s parent company Jerico Pictures admits that there are “hundreds of millions of potentially impacted individuals.” According to the news site TechCrunch, security experts estimate the number of stolen Social Security numbers to be around 270 million.
Of all the information stolen, the Social Security numbers are considered especially sensitive, because they can be used as proof of identity – meaning criminals could potentially use the information to commit identity theft.
Another instance of privatized profits and socialized losses. “We collected sensitive data for profit but protecting it and dealing with the fallout is too expensive so it’s everyone’s problem now, bye!”
Freeze your credit if you haven’t already!
Well, I suppose that that was going to happen sooner or later.
According to the news site TechCrunch, security experts estimate the number of stolen Social Security numbers to be around 270 million.
There are 334 million people in the US, so that’s probably just about everyone.
around 270 million. There are 334 million people in the US, so that’s probably just about everyone.
Yeah.
Including past breaches, it’s unclear if any adult American’s private information remains unbreached.
There’s an ongoing arm chair discussion happening among Cybersecurity folks of how many living adult humans with social security numbers haven’t been breached.
Are there eleven? Are there a thousand? Are there any? We don’t know. We do know it’s not many.
The good(?) news is that new adults are turning 18 every day, and entering their private information into the same systems, soon to be breached in the same ways. So that’s something? I don’t know. Maybe it’s nothing, honestly.
Another example of why it should be illegal for companies to hold your PII without your knowledge or consent. I’ve never heard of this company, but I guarantee you they have my information. By consent, I do not meaning clicking “I agree” on a 97 page ToS to play a game you’ve purchased, or on some random pop-up on a random website you’ve visited once. This is theft, plain and simple.
Remeber Kids, only Data that dosn’t exist is save from theft
