National Public Data Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Major Data Breach

National Public Data (also known as Jerico Pictures) is facing a class action lawsuit after a data breach allegedly exposed the personal information of 2.9 billion individuals on the dark web. The lawsuit claims that National Public Data, which uses ‘scraping’ techniques to gather data from non-public sources for background checks, has failed to protect sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, full names, addresses, and relative details.

The breach came to light when named plaintiff Christopher Hofmann was notified by his identity theft protection service that his data was available on the dark web. The cybercriminal group ASDoD reportedly listed this stolen data for sale at $3.5 million.

The plaintiffs accuse National Public Data of negligence, breaches of fiduciary duty, and unjust enrichment. They are seeking financial compensation and demanding that the company implement several security measures, including data segmentation, database scanning, and annual cybersecurity evaluations by third-party assessors.

The court is also being asked to mandate the purging of personal data of all affected individuals and to ensure future data is encrypted. If proven, this breach could be among the largest ever recorded, rivaling the Yahoo! 2013 breach. Experts advise using identity theft protection services to monitor for potential data compromises.