A staggering 2.7 billion records containing personal information of individuals in the United States have been leaked on a hacking forum, revealing sensitive details such as names, Social Security numbers, physical addresses, and potential aliases, Bleepingcomputer reports.
The leaked data is allegedly sourced from National Public Data, a company that aggregates and sells personal information for purposes like background checks, criminal record searches, and private investigations. National Public Data is believed to collect this information from public sources to create detailed profiles on individuals both in the US and abroad.
On August 6th, another hacker named “Fenice” released what is believed to be the most complete version of the stolen data on the Breached hacking forum. Fenice claims that the breach was actually carried out by a different hacker known as “SXUL.” The leaked dataset, which consists of two text files totaling 277GB, contains nearly 2.7 billion plaintext records.
While the total number of records has been confirmed, the accuracy of the data is questionable. Multiple individuals have verified that their personal information, as well as that of deceased family members, is included in the leak.
However, some have also reported that their Social Security numbers are incorrectly associated with other people, suggesting errors within the dataset. Additionally, the data appears to be outdated, lacking current addresses for those included.
