In a chilling development that has sent shockwaves through America and the cybersecurity community, the hacker group known as USDoD recently claimed responsibility for a data breach that may have compromised the social security number of every American and billions more people worldwide. The breach, which occurred in April of 2024, has had far-reaching implications. Earlier this month, the group released part of their stolen data for free to demonstrate the authenticity of their data on breach forums, a dark web platform, for 3.9 million dollars.
Breach Forums is well-known for being a forum for offering personal data from companies affected by data breaches, allowing individuals and groups to purchase the personal information of millions. This breach could have severe consequences for all Americans. As of now public data hasn’t made any public announcement on the data breach.
The sheer scale of the breach and its data would make this the biggest data breach in history as the current estimate for affected victims is around 330 million Americans exposed and millions more from other countries. The repercussions of this event could be massive, as identity theft and fraud may become rampant as this data is exposed to exploitation.
It’s worth noting that a significant part of the data being sold could just be duplicate records of past data breaches. This could mean that the claimed 3.9 billion people affected might be lower.
Update: Public data records acknowledges the data breach.
In a recent update public data record has admitted to a data breach. They have stated:
‘What Happened? There appears to have been a data security incident that may have involved some of your personal information. The incident is believed to have involved a third-party bad actor attempting to hack into data in late December 2023, with potential leaks occurring in April 2024 and summer 2024. We conducted an investigation, and subsequent information has come to light.
What Information Was Involved? The information suspected of being breached included names, email addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and mailing addresses.’
