Episode 180 — Largest Data Breach In History?

Data Privacy Detective

We turn our magnifying glass to what some August 2024 headlines call the biggest data breach in history. One report said the entire population of the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom was hacked, with up to 2.9 billion people’s identities at risk.

On closer inspection, it appears that 2.9 billion rows of data were packaged and posted for sale on the dark web for $3.5 million. Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information were exposed, including between 100 and 300 million Social Security numbers of Americans.

This was not a traditional hack or data breach National Public Data, a data broker, gathered information about many millions of people from public and non-public sources which it used it to offer background checks and other services. The data includes SS#’s, email addresses and other personally identifiable information about between 100-300 million people. Many are deceased, but others are alive. In April 2024, a hacker stole the database. A company then put this massive data trove up for sale on the dark web, eliciting interest from cybercriminals seeking to steal identities and engage in cybertheft. That led to government investigations and a class action lawsuit.

The first 155 episodes of Data Privacy Detective can be found on the feed of the Frost Brown Todd Podcast. You can listen on Apple Podcasts (https://apple.co/3IrHUTg), Spotify (https://bit.ly/49XRU2k), or Soundcloud (https://bit.ly/3T8EWrw).