Last month, data hacking was targeted at National Public Data, a company responsible for providing background checks and fraud prevention services, posing a risk to billions of people’s personal information.
National Public Data affirmed that hackers tried to gain access to and steal its data, with the possibility of some leaks.
A lawsuit filed shows that a hacking group has owned up to illegally possessing the personal records of about 3 billion people.
A representative of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international nonprofit focused on digital rights, by the name of Bill Budingtonan, said that it is important to exercise vigilance in response to the data that was exposed to unauthorized individuals.
“If this information is disclosed, and it looks like it’s being disclosed, it means that a malicious actor could glean information on you to open new lines of credit, to impersonate you,” Budington said. “Taking some precautions is prudent right now.”
He also advised individuals to take the necessary steps to protect themselves from the data breach.
“You can call your bank account and put locks on your account. A lot of bank accounts offer you to put a password or special passphrase onto that account before any special changes happen. Monitoring lines of credit. Just looking at your bank accounts, making sure that there is nothing suspicious going on, that can go a long way,” Budington said.