Expert: Data hack described in lawsuit ‘staggering’ if true

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A group of hackers may have stolen billions of personal records, including Social Security numbers.

As seniors at the Grand Rapids Senior Neighbors Center prepared for lunch on Thursday, some were wondering whether their personal information is secure.

“I heard everyone’s Social Security got breached. So I just wondered how did that happen and what should I do about it,” Susan Owen said.

According to a class-action lawsuit filed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a cybercriminal group accessed 2.9 billion records from people in or around April and placed them on a dark web forum.

“If it is real, that is staggering. That’s a breach that I can’t really think of any other analog for,” Tom Holt, a professor with Michigan State University’s School of Criminal Justice, told News 8.

The information that might have been stolen includes Social Security numbers, full names, and address history over the last three decades. Hackers allege they took the information from National Public Data, which businesses use to obtain criminal records and for background checks.

On its website, National Public Data acknowledged a breach but did not share details on the magnitude of it:

“We cooperated with law enforcement and governmental investigators and conducted a review of the potentially affected records and will try to notify you if there are further significant developments applicable to you. We have also implemented additional security measures in efforts to prevent the reoccurrence of such a breach and to protect our systems,” the company wrote online.

“This is the biggest challenge with every one of the data breaches that we see: We as individual consumers don’t have a lot of control over where our individual information winds up,” Holt said. “We put a lot of trust into public companies and private companies, that they’re going to maintain our personal information in a way that is secure. However, there’s no guarantee.”

At this point, Holt says it’s hard to tell the likelihood of a person feeling the impact of the reported hack, but there are precautions people should consider.

“Check your credit history, see if there’s any new accounts or anything that you’re completely unaware of, haven’t applied for or haven’t sought out,” Holt said.

Holt said if phone numbers or emails addressed were accessed, people should also beware of thieves looking to take additional information.

“If you get a phone call, assuming, on your mobile or your cell and it appears to be a spam call, ignore it,” Holt said.

He called for better regulation to protect consumers when companies fail to keep data safe.

“I wish we could get some better resources and some actual laws that would pursue action against companies if they are truly negligent with how they manage our data,” Holt said.

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