bleepingcomputer[.]com/news/security/hackers-leak-27-billion-data-records-with-social-security-numbers/
This one's scary... a data broker, who compiled data from people in the US, Canada, & the UK, was hacked.
The leaked data consists of two text files totaling 277GB and containing nearly 2.7 billion plaintext records, rather than the original 2.9 billion number originally shared by USDoD.While BleepingComputer can't confirm if this leak contains the data for every person in the US, numerous people have confirmed to us that it included their and family members' legitimate information, including those who are deceased.
Each record consists of the following information - a person's name, mailing addresses, and social security number, with some records including additional information, like other names associated with the person. None of this data is encrypted.
Previously leaked samples of this data also included phone numbers and email addresses, but these are not included in this 2.7 billion record leak.
It is important to note that a person will have multiple records, one for each address they are known to have lived. This also means that this data breach did not impact 3 billion people as has been erroneously reported in many articles that did not properly research the data.
Some people have also told BleepingComputer that their social security numbers were associated with other people they don't know, so not all the information is accurate.
Finally, this data may be outdated, as it does not contain the current address for any of the people we checked, potentially indicating that the data was taken from an old backup.
If you live in the US, this data breach has likely leaked some of your personal information.As the data contains hundreds of millions of social security numbers, it is suggested that you monitor your credit report for fraudulent activity and report it to the credit bureaus if detected.
Furthermore, as previously leaked samples also contained email addresses and phone numbers, you should be vigilant against phishing and SMS texts attempting to trick you into providing additional sensitive information.