{“lastseen”:”2025-08-15T18:04:20″,”description”:”Remember that data broker nobody had ever heard of, but managed to leak a database which contained the data of some 2.9 billion people? It’s back, and this time with a search function. \\n\\nNational Public Data suffered an alleged breach in 2024 against a data base that, it turned out, carried 272 million unique social security numbers (SSNs.) Granted, that there are limits to the safety of using a nine-digit ID in 2025, but the news that the folks at National Public Data have decided it\u2019s time for a comeback made me slightly nauseous.\\n\\nAfter the fall-out of the aforementioned leak and others, the site shut down in December amid a wave of lawsuits against parent company Jerico Pictures. But the people at PCMag noticed that the domain nationalpublidata[.]com has been brought back to life.\\n\\nIn an update page about the security incident, the new owner states:\\n\\n\\u003e \u201cJerico Pictures, Inc., the Florida company that suffered a major data breach in 2024, no longer operates this site. We have zero affiliation with them.\u201d\\n\\nData brokers scrape, collect, and aggregate data, combining disparate details into comprehensive dossiers. Sometimes your information ends up there because of public records. And sometimes it\u2019s the result of poor security, or, as we see a lot unfortunately, a leak, ransomware attack, or other type of data breach.\\n\\nOn their \u201cAbout us\u201d page the new owners note:\\n\\n\\u003e \u201cWe collect the data you find on our people search engine from publicly available sources, including federal, state, and local government agencies, social media pages, property ownership databases, and other reliable platforms. After the data is in our hands, we verify and filter it to make sure it is indeed accurate and up-to-date.\u201d\\n\\nTheir goal:\\n\\n\\u003e \u201cNational Public Data is a people search website where you can find accurate information about US citizens. Our database gives you access to millions of public records to help you find the data you need the most for various purposes. Privacy, speed, and ease of use are at the heart of what we do. Start your search today and discover what you can learn.\u201d\\n\\nIf you live in the US, it might be prudent to check what information they have about you and where they might have scraped that from. Did you know you can have a lot of that information removed?\\n\\nIn the meantime, the \u201cinfo spillers\u201d are back, and they seem to be making up for lost time. The real question isn\u2019t if your data is at risk. It\u2019s what you\u2019re going to do about it now.\\n\\n## Protecting yourself after a data breach\\n\\nThere are some actions you can take if you are, or suspect you may have been, the victim of a data breach.\\n\\n * **Check the vendor\u2019s advice.** Every breach is different, so check with the vendor to find out what\u2019s happened and follow any specific advice they offer.\\n * **Change your password.** You can make a stolen password useless to thieves by changing it. Choose a strong password that you don\u2019t use for anything else. Better yet, let a password manager choose one for you.\\n * **Enable two-factor authentication (2FA).** If you can, use a FIDO2-compliant hardware key, laptop or phone as your second factor. Some forms of two-factor authentication (2FA) can be phished just as easily as a password. 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can\u2019t be phished.\\n * **Watch out for fake vendors.** The thieves may contact you posing as the vendor. Check the vendor website to see if they are contacting victims and verify the identity of anyone who contacts you using a different communication channel.\\n * **Take your time.** Phishing attacks often impersonate people or brands you know, and use themes that require urgent attention, such as missed deliveries, account suspensions, and security alerts.\\n * **Consider not storing your card details**. It\u2019s definitely more convenient to get sites to remember your card details for you, but we highly recommend not storing that information on websites.\\n * **Set up identity monitoring.** Identity monitoring alerts you if your personal information is found being traded illegally online and helps you recover after.\\n\\n\\n\\n* * *\\n\\n**We don ‘t just report on data privacy\u2014we help you remove your personal information**\\n\\nCybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. With Malwarebytes Personal Data Remover, you can scan to find out which sites are exposing your personal information, and then delete that sensitive data from the internet.”,”published”:”2025-08-15T16:46:54″,”modified”:”2025-08-15T16:46:54″,”type”:”malwarebytes”,”title”:”National Public Data returns after massive Social Security Number leak”,”source”:””,”references”:””,”id”:”MALWAREBYTES:83CFE7DC6865B31FCF9FB1B2DEBDD275″,”bulletinFamily”:”blog”,”cwe”:null,”cvelist”:[],”sourceData”:””,”sourceHref”:””,”cvss”:{“score”:0,”severity”:”NONE”,”vector”:”NONE”,”version”:”NONE”},”cvss2″:{},”cvss3″:{“version”:””,”vectorString”:””,”baseScore”:0,”baseSeverity”:””,”attackVector”:””,”attackComplexity”:””,”privilegesRequired”:””,”userInteraction”:””,”scope”:””,”confidentialityImpact”:””,”integrityImpact”:””,”availabilityImpact”:””,”cvssV3″:{“version”:””,”vectorString”:””,”baseScore”:0,”baseSeverity”:””,”attackVector”:””,”attackComplexity”:””,”privilegesRequired”:””,”userInteraction”:””,”scope”:””,”confidentialityImpact”:””,”integrityImpact”:””,”availabilityImpact”:””}},”href”:”https:\/\/www.malwarebytes.com\/blog\/news\/2025\/08\/national-public-data-returns-after-massive-social-security-number-leak”,”category_name”:”News”,”post_link”:””,”product”:””,”version”:””,”vendor”:””,”ai_description”:””,”ai_severity”:””,”ai_vendor”:””,”ai_product”:””,”ai_version”:””,”ai_score”:0}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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