Nearly three billion people’s personal information – including social security numbers – could be at risk after a class action complaint alleges a background-check company failed to properly secure and safeguard the data.
The company, Jerico Pictures Inc., doing business as National Public Data, is the defendant in a class action complaint brought by plaintiff Christopher Hoffman.
According to the complaint documents filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the data contains some individuals’ social security numbers and other personal information including full names and current and past addresses.
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The information was allegedly leaked on the dark web by a cybercrime group called USDoD in April, with the complaint claiming the group put the data on sale for $3.5m.
Plaintiff Mr Hoffman, of Freemont, California, alleges that he received a notification in July that his data had been leaked on the dark web as part of the breach.
The complaint also alleges that the plaintiffs weren’t aware that they had provided their data to National Public Data and that individuals affected have not yet been informed.
According to Bloomberg Law, if the breach is confirmed it could be “amongst the biggest ever”.
Mr Hoffman is seeking the court to make the company ‘purge the personal information’ of those affected and to ‘encrypt all data collected going forward’, according to Bloomberg Law.
The plaintiff also seeks monetary relief on behalf of all those affected and that the company implements changes to its data management.
