Nationwide Public Knowledge, the hacked knowledge dealer that misplaced hundreds of thousands of Social Safety numbers and extra, recordsdata for chapter | TechCrunch

A Florida knowledge dealer that misplaced tons of of hundreds of thousands of Social Safety numbers and different personally identifiable data in a knowledge breach earlier this yr, has filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety as the corporate faces a wave of litigation.

Jericho Footage, the dad or mum firm of the hacked knowledge dealer Nationwide Public Knowledge, told a Florida bankruptcy court that it was unlikely to have the ability to repay its debtors or deal with its anticipated liabilities and class-action lawsuits, together with paying “for credit score monitoring for tons of of hundreds of thousands of doubtless impacted people.”

In its preliminary submitting, Jericho Footage’ proprietor, Salvatore Verini, stated the corporate “faces substantial uncertainty dealing with regulatory challenges by the Federal Commerce Fee and greater than 20 states with civil penalties for knowledge breaches.”

Information of the chapter was first reported by PCMag.

Since April, a hacker with a historical past of promoting stolen knowledge claimed to have breached Nationwide Public Knowledge and stolen billions of data, affecting round 300 million folks, making it one of many largest knowledge breaches of the yr.

Per the data broker’s data breach notice on its web site, the stolen knowledge contains names, dates of delivery, e-mail and postal addresses, cellphone numbers, and Social Safety numbers. Given the character of the knowledge that knowledge brokers gather, among the stolen knowledge was correct, a few of it was not, and far of it associated to individuals who had been deceased. 

The corporate’s stolen database contained about 270 million Social Safety numbers in complete, safety researchers estimated.

In accordance to the bankruptcy filings, Verini valued the corporate’s stolen database of Social Safety numbers at $1 million. The submitting additionally lists a number of different databases the corporate maintains as property, however didn’t present corresponding valuations. These datasets pertain to people licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration to put in writing prescriptions for managed substances; these with permits to hold hid weapons; and banks of information containing public data, equivalent to marriages, divorces, chapter filings, and worldwide monetary sanctions; amongst others.

It’s unlikely that the lawsuits or enforcement motion will lead to any compensation for these affected, given what little is left within the firm’s coffers. 

The information dealer’s chapter filings revealed its insurance coverage supplier “declined protection” following the info breach, and that the corporate had fewer than $75,000 in complete property. A lot of the corporate’s income went to purchases of bulk knowledge, and to Verini’s pay as the corporate’s sole operator. As required by the chapter submitting, the company disclosed net profits of $475,526 in 2022 and $865,149 throughout 2023.