A Coral Springs company that lost around 270 million Social Security numbers in a data breach has filed for bankruptcy, records show.
In April, a cybercriminal group known as USDoD targeted National Public Data (NPD), a data brokerage operating out of 1555 Heron Bay Blvd. USDoD stole personal data linked to 2.9 billion global consumers, both living and dead, from the company, according to a proposed class action lawsuit.
NPD’s parent company, Jerico Pictures, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal bankruptcy court in Fort Lauderdale earlier this month, documents show.
According to the filing by Jerico Pictures’ president, Salvatore Verini Jr., his company “faces substantial uncertainty facing regulatory challenges by the Federal Trade Commission and more than 20 states with civil penalties for data breaches.”
The company will probably not be able to cover its debts and liabilities, which will likely include “credit monitoring for hundreds of millions of potentially impacted individuals,” the records state.
According to the court filings, Jerico Pictures’ insurer declined coverage of losses linked to the data breach. The company’s assets total less than $75,000, the records state.
NPD, the hacked company, is a subscription data service offering “institutional clients an opportunity to perform a rapid background check through an automated online connection,” the records state.
“The background checks are specifically designed to support organizations who must prohibit entry of individuals with background issues (like known sexual offenders, etc.) in real-time who present to various institutions,” including a number of healthcare operations, according to the bankruptcy filing.
Analysts said NPD scrapes data from sources that include public record databases, national and state databases, and court records. The company then sells the private data to various organizations, including background check websites, investigators, app developers, and data resellers, records show.
On April 8, USDoD claimed on the dark web that they had stolen the NPD data, which includes social security numbers and various other sensitive information. The stolen data also includes the names of people with concealed firearm permits, drug prescribers licensed by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, and financial, marriage, and divorce filings, court records show.
The cybercriminal group offered to sell the database for $3.5 million, according to a court records.
According to a proposed class action lawsuit, consumers impacted by the breach did not knowingly provide NPD with their personal information.
The bankruptcy filing values the social security database stolen by USDoD at $1 million.
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