Congress demands answers about consumer data breach

Reps. James Comer, R-Ky., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., on Thursday sent a letter to National Public Data asking for details about a cyberattack the Florida-based data aggregation company allegedly suffered. Reports about the event indicated that the group “USDod” stole as many as 3 billion people’s sensitive information in the attack and put it up for sale on the dark web for $3.5 billion, Comer and Mace said. If those reports are true, this cyberattack is one of the largest in history.

Has the company denied the attack? The company admitted that hackers attempted to break into its database in December. It said breaches may have occurred in April or sometime this summer and hackers likely obtained individuals’ names, Social Security numbers, addresses, and email addresses in the breach. The company said it was working with law enforcement to review the incident and the records involved and it would contact affected individuals as soon as possible.

What exactly are these Congress members asking for? Comer and Mace, who serve on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, asked National Public Data President Salvatore Verini to brief Congress as soon as possible to confirm the details of the attack and the company’s response. They also asked for more information about what data the hackers stole and how many people the breach affected.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about how medical data is worth far more than credit card information on the dark web.