National Public Data Facing Class Action Lawsuit Over Data Breach Affecting Nearly 3 Billion Personal Records

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National Public Data faces a proposed class action lawsuit that claims deficient cybersecurity on the part of the Florida-based background check firm resulted in a “foreseeable and preventable” data breach.

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According to the 50-page National Public Data lawsuit, the cyberattack impacted the personal information of its clients’ customers, compromising individuals’ full names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other sensitive data. National Public Data states on its website that the incident is believed to have involved “a third-party bad actor that was trying to hack into data in late December 2023, with potential leaks of certain data in April 2024 and summer 2024.”

In early June 2024, global tech news publication The Register reported that a cybercriminal group known as USDoD claimed to have put the stolen information up for sale on the dark web for $3.5 million. Per the report, the threat actor stated in an online forum that the leak included 2.9 billion records.

The data breach suit contends that Jerico Pictures, Inc.—which does business as National Public Data—could have prevented the incident had it properly secured its computer network against cyberattacks. As the case tells it, the company failed to implement data security protocols appropriate to the nature of the confidential information in its care and instead maintained, used and shared the data in a “reckless manner.”

The plaintiff—a Michigan resident whose information was furnished to National Public Data through one of its clients—claims that since the cyberattack, she has been informed by TurboTax and Experian that her private data has been disseminated on the dark web.

Victims like the plaintiff now face an ongoing threat of being targeted for cybercrimes, the complaint charges.

“As a result of the Data Breach, [the plaintiff] and Class Members have been exposed to a heightened and imminent risk of fraud and identity theft,” the filing asserts. “[The plaintiff] and Class Members must now and in the future closely monitor their financial accounts to guard against identity theft.”

The National Public Data lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States whose private information was accessed and/or acquired by an unauthorized party as a result of the data breach experienced by the company.

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