Hackers may have stolen your social security number

Transcript:

Conway Gittens: I’m Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.

There’s an upbeat tone on Wall Street thanks to signs of a resilient economy. July retail sales blew past expectations with a 1 percent jump. Weekly jobless claims rose by 227,000, which was below forecasts. Meanwhile at Walmart, second-quarter sales saw a stronger-than-anticipated rise of 5 percent and earnings were better than expected as well.

The world’s largest retailer lifted 2024 guidance for the second time this year.

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In other news: A massive data breach involving the Social Security number of every American may mean all of our information is on sale to the highest bidder.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a person claiming to be a member of hacking group USDoD is offering a treasure trove of stolen personal data taken from 2.9 billion people. The highly personal information includes Social Security numbers, full names, addresses, date of births and phone numbers. Media outlets are trying to verify the veracity of the claim.

A class-action lawsuit reveals the data was stolen from National Public Data, according to claims made in April by USDoD. National Public Data collects and stores that information to aid in the completion of background checks. National Public Data has not formally admitted to the breach but told the Los Angeles Times that it “purged the entire database, as a whole, of any and all entries,” and claimed to have deleted any “non-public information.”

That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I'm Conway Gittens with TheStreet.

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