Social Security numbers leaked in data breach -- here's what you need to know

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) --- Hackers may have stolen sensitive data impacting millions of Americans, including Social Security numbers.

The data breach started with a third-party background check company called National Public Data and the hack likely occurred back in April.

This came to light after a California man was alerted by his identify theft protection service that his info had been leaked on the dark web. The man then filed a lawsuit.

According to court documents, a hacker group called USDoD attempted to sell the stolen info for more than $3 million on the dark web before another group of hackers found the file and leaked it for free.

The hack leaves millions of people at risk of falling victim to identity theft and fraud.

Rick Wash, an associate professor and cybersecurity expert from UW-Madison's School of Computer, Data, and Information Sciences says these security breaches are common.

"Almost every week I see another data breach where there's something in the hundreds of thousands to millions of people whose information has been stolen," said Wash. Wash says these kinds of criminals are always looking for ways to exploit large systems.

"There's a lot of companies that hold information about us and not all of them have great security," he said.

This latest breach compromised names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers from around 2.9 billion records.

Wash says a lot of info stolen is likely inaccurate, but people should still take this seriously.

"The main thing that worries me about it that it included Social Security numbers and having people's name, address and Social Security number is enough that I can like take out a loan or credit card in their name and so that's one of the ways that criminals try and turn this data into money," said Wash.

The first thing he recommends is checking and freezing your credit.

"Freezing your credit can definitely help because what it does is it means new loans can't be taken out so even if they have that information, they can't take out a loan in your name," said Wash.

The exact number of people impacted by this is still unclear but other things you can do to protect your information include, changing all your passwords, enabling multifactor authentication, and consider finding a tracking service that alerts you when your info may be compromised.

Experts say as of now, everyone should assume they've been impacted and take these steps.