The Slow-Burn Nightmare of the National Public Data Breach

The background-check service National Public Data acknowledged a breach this week, just as a trove of the stolen data leaked publicly online after months of ambiguity. A hacker known as USDoD had offered the data on cybercriminal forums in April for $3.5 million, claiming 2.9 billion records, and samples later proved at least partly legitimate. Security researcher Troy Hunt found about 134 million email addresses in circulation, though many were paired with inaccurate personal information, and no email addresses appeared in the Social Security number files. Jeremiah Fowler warns that the risk may take years to materialize.