Data on 2.9 Billion People Leaked on Dark Web After One of the Largest Breaches in History

Criminals have posted on the dark web a database containing data on 2.9 billion people, offering to sell it for $3.5 million, according to a lawsuit filed in Florida.

Very few data breaches have the dubious honor of being among the largest in history. According to a Bloomberg Law report, the information posted on the dark web by the cybercriminal group USDoD might just qualify as one of the them.

The data they posted was originally collected by National Public Data, a public records data provider specializing in background checks and fraud prevention. The firm says the data comes from various public record databases, court records, state and national databases and other repositories nationwide.

A class action lawsuit in Florida against National Public Data claims that the company has failed to safeguard the personally identifiable information it collected, such as full names, former and complete addresses going back for 30 years, Social Security Numbers, information about siblings, etc.

Another problem that the lawsuit addresses is that National Public Data allegedly scraped information about people from non-public sources and at no point informed them that their data might be at risk.

“On or about April 8, 2024, a criminal gang that goes by the name of USDoD posted a database  entitled  ‘National Public  Data’  on the  Dark  Web hacker  forum  named ‘Breached.’ USDoD alleged to have the PII of approximately 2.9 billion individuals and offered the database for purchase at a price of $3.5 million,” the complaint states.

The plaintiff is asking the court to oblige the company to purge the information of the affected people and to implement much stricter security measures going forward, alongside monetary compensation.

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