(News Nation) — Civil rights activists fear a tsunami of identity theft is on the way after a group of hackers claim to have stolen nearly 3 billion personal details, including Social Security numbers.
The theft happened in April Class action lawsuit The filing was made in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by a group of hackers known as USDoD. National Dataprovides personal information to employers, private investigators, and others who perform background checks.
The US Department of Defense reportedly tried to sell the data for $3.5 million, but has now listed much of it for free on an online exchange of stolen personal data. It claims to have 2.9 billion records containing the personal data of every citizen of the US, Canada and the UK, a combined population of roughly 440 million people.
Several news sites have investigated some of the data and reported that it appears to be about real people. National Public Data did not respond to numerous requests for comment from media.
According to the website Bleeping Computer“Each record consists of information such as an individual’s name, mailing address, and Social Security number, and some records contain additional information such as other names associated with the individual. This data is not encrypted.”
Experts say the most effective thing you can do right now is to freeze your credit file with the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and Trans UnionThis will prevent someone from applying for credit cards or opening other financial accounts in your name.
However, if you are applying for something that requires a credit check, you will need to lift the freeze.
There’s one big warning: Don’t respond to any unsolicited emails claiming to be from a credit reporting agency. Experts say it’s probably a scammer claiming to “save” you from other scammers.
There are also paid services that monitor your accounts and the dark web.
