Class Action Filed Over Massive Data Breach

A massive data breach at the Florida-based background check company National Public Data (NPD), operated by Jericho Pictures Inc., has exposed the personal information of approximately 2.9 billion people. The stolen data, including Social Security numbers and addresses, was put up for sale on the dark web for $3.5 million by a hacker group known as USDoD, believed to be based in Latin America. The breach, which occurred in April, has led to a class-action lawsuit accusing NPD of negligence and unauthorized scraping of data from non-public sources. This incident rivals the 2013 Yahoo! breach in scope and potentially affects most Americans and even deceased individuals. Separately, HealthEquity, a health savings account administrator, also suffered a cyberattack that compromised the personal and medical information of 4.3 million Americans. Both companies are facing significant backlash and legal actions as they work to address the security breaches and mitigate potential damage.