100 million Americans just had their background check information exposed – phone numbers, birthdates and more

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I have to get one Background check done is bad enough, but what if all of your personal and employment information was exposed online for anyone to access? Well, that’s exactly what just happened for at least 100 million Americans.

Unlike with Data breaches which are usually the work of hackers, Data leaks This happens when a company fails to properly protect the data points of its customers, or in this case a third of the entire US population.

As reported by Cybernewsits security researchers recently discovered a troubling data breach at a company called MC2 Data, which operates a number of public records and background check sites, including PrivateRecords.net, PrivateReports, PeopleSearcher, ThePeopleSearchers and PeopleSearch USA.

Here’s everything you need to know about this massive new data leak, including all the information exposed as well as some tips and tricks to help you protect yourself from hackers trying to use this leaked information in their attacks.

Leaked background check data

As with other data breaches in the past, this one was likely due to human error rather than hackers. Cybernews’ research team found that as of August 7, about 106,316,633 records, or 2.2 TB of data, were stored by MC2 Data in a database without a password. This could have allowed anyone on the Internet to access and download this information, including hackers.

It is estimated that at least 100 million Americans have been affected by this data breach. However, the data of 2.3 million MC2 subscribers was also leaked The database remains online unprotected.

The leaked data includes names, email addresses, IP addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, employment history, property records, legal records, employment history, encrypted passwords, and even data about those affected’ families, relatives, and neighbors. However, it appears that no financial information has been leaked.

Not only does this leaked data put those affected at risk, but it is also very likely that MC2 Data will face both reputational damage and possible legal action. We will update this story accordingly as we learn more about this massive data breach.

How to stay safe after a data breach

Typically, a company will provide free access to it after a major data breach Best identity theft protection service or at least monitoring the creditworthiness of its customers. However, since MC2 Data and other background check companies have your information even though you are not technically a customer, that likely won’t be the case here unless a government agency intervenes.

So what could hackers do with all this leaked data? Based on the types of information disclosed online, targeted phishing attacks are the most likely outcome. In such attacks, hackers use the information they have about you – and there’s a lot of it – to create personalized phishing emails or text messages.

Hackers could use these phishing messages to get more information from you, such as passwords or credit card details. Likewise, they could send you malicious links or attachments filled with malware as a way to infect your computer or even your smartphone.

Given all of this personal and work-related information, my best advice is that you should be extremely careful and diligent when checking your inbox or even your messages for the foreseeable future. Be on the lookout for messages from unknown senders attempting this create a sense of urgency. However, since phone numbers were also exposed, you could also receive fraudulent calls.

It’s one thing for hackers to break into a company and steal its data. It’s another matter if a database full of personal information is left unsecured and without a password on the Internet. Hopefully MC2 Data and all other companies that handle massive amounts of sensitive data learn from this incident. However, I’ve written many stories about unsecured databases over the years, and this kind of thing always seems to happen.

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