CLEVELAND — Over 270 million Americans may have had their social security number leaked on the dark web. The latest breach involved National Public Data, which performs background checks.
National Public Data released details last month of an incident believed to involve a third party trying to hack into data in late 2023. Potential leaks of certain data involved names, email addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and mailing addresses in April and this summer.
“This is clearly one of the largest breaches that we've seen, just based on the pure volume of personal data and records that have been compromised and exposed," said Steve Stransky, a co-chair of the Data Privacy and Cyber-security Practice Group at Thompson Hine.
Stransky said this kind of breach is different because it involves social security numbers, and the damage can be extensive if not caught early.
“So unfortunately, when a threat actor or a criminal has access to an individual social security number, there's a lot of different accounts and accounts that they get access and open in the consumer's name in order to get funds from those," said Stransky.
He said that if you suspect you are a part of the breach, the first step is to freeze your credit to minimize the damage.
“Making a credit freeze is something that is free to do, and it's available to consumers, " said Stransky. "And it would essentially prevent others, third parties, in this circumstance, criminals, malicious actors, from opening credit lines in their name."
Clevelanders like Evan Tokatyan said these kinds of data breaches are concerning.
"Because your social security number is used for everything. I go get a job. I need a job. I need social security. I sign up for a credit card. They need your social security number,” Tokatyan said.
Another man who asked to stay anonymous said he had been a victim of identity theft in the past.
"Unfortunately, people don't realize how vulnerable they are,” he said.
The man explained that it affected his job and that the feds had to fix it, but it wasn't easy.
Eric Flores, who is visiting Cleveland for the Browns game, said he would like more done by the federal government to protect our sensitive information.
“I think maybe in this election, we might need to have more of a focus on social security in general," said Flores. "Maybe how it's getting funded, how it's being protected and things like that, to maybe make things better."
The Social Security Administration has put a one-stop shop on what you can do to protect yourself if you believe you may have been affected by the breach. Click here for more information.
