Lawsuit claims hackers leaked nearly 3 billion personal records from a Coral Springs-based background check company – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) – A hacking attack on a South Florida company may have exposed the personal information of billions of people, a U.S. state lawsuit says.

The alleged hacking of National Public Data may have resulted in a massive leak of personal information.

According to the lawsuit, nearly three billion records containing personal information, including names, social security numbers and addresses, were exposed in what may be the largest data theft ever.

National Public Data collects and sells access to personal information, which is then used by other organizations to conduct things like background checks and criminal records checks.

The lawsuit filed against the company in federal court in Florida alleges that the hackers shared the information on the dark web and sold it for $3.5 million.

“We have not given them permission to collect this data. We can opt out if we know the company exists, but there are hundreds of data collection companies out there,” said Cliff Steinhauer of the National Cybersecurity Alliance.

The lawsuit also alleges that the company is based in Coral Springs and that the address on the website points to a UPS Store mailbox.

“I think people should be very upset about this,” said Lou Rabon, CEO of Cyber ​​​​Defense Group. “They should be asking why this company has all this information? And who made sure it was protected when they had it?”

The scope of this breach is so large that it likely affects some data of every resident of the United States.

Experts recommend these simple measures:

• Monitor your credit reports for fraudulent activity.
• Manage your passwords and use two-factor authentication whenever possible.
• Freeze your credit accounts. This will prevent fraudsters from taking out loans or opening new credit cards in your name.

“Too few people are doing the basics right, and so we are making it really easy for cybercriminals to attack us,” Steinhauer said.

The hackers claim that information was stolen in the United Kingdom and Canada in addition to the United States.

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