this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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17
Hackers may have stolen the Social Security numbers of all Americans. Here's what to know. (www.cbsnews.com)
submitted 3 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
55 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A new lawsuit is claiming hackers have gained access to the personal information of "billions of individuals," including their Social Security numbers, current and past addresses and the names of siblings and parents — personal data that could allow fraudsters to infiltrate financial accounts or take out loans in their names. 

The allegation arose in a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Christopher Hofmann, a California resident who claims his identity theft protection service alerted him that his personal information had been leaked to the dark web by the "nationalpublicdata.com" breach. The lawsuit was earlier reported by Bloomberg Law.

The breach allegedly occurred around April 2024, with a hacker group called USDoD exfiltrating the unencrypted personal information of billions of individuals from a company called National Public Data (NPD), a background check company, according to the lawsuit. Earlier this month, a hacker leaked a version of the stolen NPD data for free on a hacking forum, tech site Bleeping Computer reported. 

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[–] Kiernian@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In the sense of "Simpsons did it!":

Equifax did it first.

Sure wish the massive corporate incompetence and malfeasance causing huge data leaks multiple times over the years would get mentioned every time one of these stories comes up.

Hackers did blah, this WOULD ALMOST matter, but!

We need to start redirecting some of those board bonuses and CEO dollars back into infrastructure to actually secure this shit as a required responsibility and stop places from being allowed to request personal information they shouldn't have.

[–] Tilgare@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

These companies should be paying fines in the BILLIONS of dollars for their malfeasance. I got a notice from work this morning, this is horrifying.

[–] troed@fedia.io 7 points 3 months ago (15 children)

Maybe it's time to move on from using SSNs for security? We have someting similar in Sweden - "person numbers". If I call the tax authority and ask for someone's "person number" they will tell me. They're not secret in any way, and thus not used as some form of authentication either.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The old social security cards had "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION" printed on them for a reason.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 3 months ago

This. It is so shocking that they just get used as a harder ID than actual ID. Someone didn't get the memo. And by "someone", I mean corporations who haven't had real consequences in 50 years.

[–] Addv4@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They were never actually meant for identification, just got pigeonholed into that role because the government couldn't get support for a national citizen ID or the equivalent. We absolutely need something, but every republican will scream that, "it's a way for the government to track us and limit out freedoms!" and it will be shot down.

[–] ElegantBiscuit@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The peak of irony considering the porn age ID verification laws and abortion bans they impose on people living in the states they control.

[–] gerbler@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Because they never cared about government overreach. It was always a lie to appeal to gullible rubes.

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[–] CodexArcanum@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (4 children)

It's a massive pain in the ass, but every American should freeze their credit with the 3 agencies. Their websites are shit, they will sign you up for credit card ads no matter what you click, and every bit of the process will make you seethe with rage at how fucked and incompetent the whole system is. But go do it anyway.

I did it last year after the state DMV was hacked and lost every personal detail for basically everyone in the state who drives. It was real nice not having a loan taken out in my name a few months later when Experien called me out of the blue to ask if I really wanted to unfreeze.

I also did have to legit take out a loan later and it was easy. Just call one of the agencies and do a temporary unfreeze for 24 hours. Amazingly, they let you unfreeze to take out more loans very simply. Wonder why it's so hard to freeze in the first place? Almost like they don't give a shit who's creating the debts as long as some poor somewhere can be held to account for it.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And the "Experian Alerts - Your Monthly Account Statement is here!" e-mails that you can't disable, because they, and others, figured out how to get around the CAN-SPAM act by claiming the spam is "alerts related to your account" and not just advertising covered in pig lipstick.

Places to remove yourself from, including the big three:

[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

100% this.

Freeze credit on the big 3 websites. I unfreeze when needed like when I financed my car, then lock them up again.

It is a pain, and be sure not to lose the passwords. Turn on MFA where ever possible. Do not use correct answers for secret questions, use made up answers and keep track with a pw manager.

Check your credit every year for mistakes or oddities.

If you live in California, contact data brokers like Lexus Nexus or Red Violet and have them delete your profile.

God I hate modern society.

[–] AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It’s so incompetent because they are federally required to offer the freeze service for free. They all also offer a paid subscription freezing service that’s much more convenient, and they are trying to frustrate you into paying for what they are required to offer for free.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

they are trying to frustrate you into paying for what they are required to offer for free

It's like the coin-operated tire pumps at convenience stores that have a switch on the back that will turn them on for nothing - since in many states tire pumps are required to be offered free of charge.

[–] AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Holy shit I didn’t know that

[–] RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

I just asked ChatGPT. It said only California and Connecticut.

But some local governments too.

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 months ago (4 children)

What's to stop someone from in unfreezing your credit if they literally know everything about you and have all the info at their fingertips

[–] Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

It's like running away from a bear... you don't have to outrun the bear, just the other people running from the bear. If someone wants your identity, they're probably gonna get it if they're determined enough. The way these hacks usually work, though, is you just buy a chunk of the data, maybe 10k records. Then, they use automated tools to try and open accounts under those ID records. If it fails, no biggie, they just move on to the next record.

[–] CodexArcanum@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There's no such thing as perfect security of course, but in this case it's because having my phone number and address isn't the same as having my phone. So short of a SIM clone or something like that, the MFA on those accounts still adds one layer of protection. There's also "security" questions and, protip, the answer to what high school I went to is not which high school I went to. It's just another, different pass phrase.

I'm just not worth the trouble to beat all the extra layers of security when there's millions of people who's money is far easier to get at.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

The pyramid of pain.

Make it hair pullingly difficult to find the good stuff.

You want my name? Fine.

My number? Here's my google voice digits.

My email? I've got dozens.

My home address? I'm gonna need something from you.

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[–] gentooer@programming.dev 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Social Security Numbers are such a weird thing. Over here we've got an official rijksregisternummer that you get assigned at birth by the state and can be used to identify you. For some reason the USA decided that something like this is against their Freedoms ©®™, but when an agency gave people numbers for something completely different, that was never build to identify everyone in the country, everyone decided this is great to identify everyone in the country, so now everyone uses this system for something it was never built for.

[–] LePoisson@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

The social security agency is the same thing here. SSN is the same as your rijksregisternummer but don't take my word for it.

https://www.ssa.gov/history/orghist.html

It's literally an identification number assigned at by the federal government to identify you - usually you get them at birth but not always. Depends on your parents I suppose.

https://www.ssa.gov/agency/pillars/support.html

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Where’s my check

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Lol, right. The best the inevitable class-action will get you is a coupon for 10% off one year of credit monitoring.

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

With purchase of eligible credit monitoring plan.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 1 points 3 months ago

...from one of our partner affiliated monitoring companies.

[–] Pandantic@midwest.social 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Hey, good thing I already got my personal information stolen from my doctor’s office or something so I already have a year’s free credit monitoring with alerts etc. 🙂‍↕️

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

The recommendation in the article was to freeze my credit reports. Fucking awesome. Equifax locked me out for 24 hours trying to access my account and Experian won't even let me access my account because their website is apparently unable to text me a four-digit code. Now I have to call and deal with customer service for both of them. At least TransUnion let me do it almost immediately.

[–] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I froze my credit once and I’ll never do it again. Almost stopped the purchase of my house because it took so long to unfreeze. Screw that.

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[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Having to deal with this inevitable shitshow is the only reason I haven't done this yet. Every interaction I've ever had with these two companies has been a dumpster fire.

[–] ramble81@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It was easy for me. I was able to do all three online with no issues. Just offering some anecdotal evidence to offset one other persons story.

[–] KnightontheSun@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

[deleted]

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Throw it on the pile of data breaches affecting me (and most Americans).

I don't know why I even bother lowering my voice when I have to give my SSN to someone. You could probably just google it anyway.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How often do you have to give it out loud. Not American but I basically never have to utter our equivalent.

[–] mr_robot2938@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I had to give it out loud to get a one day fishing license in the state of Ohio. After filling out a ton of info including my ssn on the Ohio dept of natural resources website, I found out the website credit card processor wasn’t working. I went to a local bait shop and had to give my SSN out loud to get a license.

I was like well, I guess I’ll blindly trust this stranger not to fuck over my life now that he has my secret number. The United States habit of basing your identity off your SSN is so incredibly stupid.

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