Brazil’s Federal Police have arrested the hacker responsible for a breach that exposed 2.9 billion records, including sensitive personal information like Social Security numbers.
The stolen data, which surfaced in August, was listed for sale on the dark web in April by a group calling itself “USDoD.”
According to Bleeping Computer, a translated press release from the police department revealed that the hacker was connected to two instances of selling federal police data. The hacker also claimed responsibility for leaking the personal information of 80,000 FBI InfraGard members.
Security researchers at Atlas have developed a tool to search the leaked records, estimating around 272 million unique Social Security numbers and 600 million phone numbers were compromised. The breach has already led to significant fallout, with National Public Data and its parent company, Jerico Pictures, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid lawsuits and potential fines.
The hacker now faces charges for illegally accessing computer systems and selling stolen data, with additional investigations underway to determine if there were other breaches involved. The operation to apprehend the hacker has been dubbed “Operation Data Breach.”
Bijay Pokharel
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