Jerico Pictures Inc., operating under the name National Public Data, has been implicated in a data breach that exposed the personal information of approximately 3 billion individuals. For context, the world’s population sits at about 8.1 billion people. This means roughly 30% of the population has personal data in this breach. ( We’re rounding down for recent births and deaths. )
According to a proposed class action filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a cybercriminal group known as USDoD posted a database named “National Public Data” on a dark web forum on April 8. The group claimed to have the personal data of 2.9 billion people and offered the database for sale for $3.5 million.
The breach, if confirmed, would be one of the largest recorded. The complaint notes that it is unclear when or how the breach occurred and that National Public Data has not yet notified the affected individuals.
National Public Data collects personally identifying information from non-public sources. This means that folks caught in this breach did not provide their data to the company. The information exposed in the breach includes Social Security numbers, current and past addresses, full names, and information about relatives, including some who have been deceased for nearly two decades.
For data leaks like this, there is not much that an individual can do to keep their data from appearing. That said, there are some steps that you can take to make sure that if ( when ) your data is in a leak, you are notified and as safe as you can be. Some important preemptive steps to take include:
- Have a freeze on your credit
- Have dark web monitoring for your email address or PII
- Use strong unique passwords for each site / service you use that use a random mix of characters like lowercase, uppercase, numbers, and symbols
- Use multi-factor authentication where possible
- Keep your computer systems up to date
- Don’t use free wi-fi
The case is Hofmann v. Jerico Pictures, Inc., S.D. Fla., No. 0:24-cv-61383, complaint filed on August 1, 2024. For more information, you can view the court docket here.
