LexisNexis Danger Options, an information dealer that collects and makes use of shoppers’ private knowledge to assist its paying company prospects detect attainable threat and fraud, has disclosed an information breach affecting greater than 364,000 folks.
The corporate stated in a filing with Maine’s attorney general that the breach, relationship again to December 25, 2024, allowed a hacker to acquire shoppers’ delicate private knowledge from a third-party platform utilized by the corporate for software program improvement. LexisNexis didn’t title the platform.
The stolen knowledge varies, however contains names, dates of delivery, telephone numbers, postal and e mail addresses, Social Safety numbers and driver’s license numbers.
It’s not instantly clear what circumstances led to the breach. A spokesperson for LexisNexis didn’t return TechCrunch’s request for remark.
Information brokers like LexisNexis are a part of a billion-dollar business of corporations that revenue from accumulating and promoting entry to giant quantities of Individuals’ private and monetary knowledge. LexisNexis makes use of swathes of client info to assist corporations detect probably fraudulent transactions, in addition to to carry out threat evaluation and due diligence on would-be prospects.
Final yr, The New York Times reported that automobile producers had been amongst a number of corporations that shared knowledge on automobile driving habits with LexisNexis with out automobile house owners’ express permission. The information was then bought on to insurance coverage corporations, which used the mileage and driving knowledge to find out the drivers’ insurance coverage premiums.
Legislation enforcement companies additionally use LexisNexis for acquiring private info on suspects, akin to names, home addresses, and call records.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration scrapped a plan that will have restricted knowledge brokers from promoting Individuals’ private and monetary info, together with Social Safety numbers. White Home official Russell Vought wrote in a Federal Register discover that the Biden-era rule, which might have required knowledge brokers to observe the identical federal privateness guidelines as credit score bureaus and renter-screening corporations, was “not vital or acceptable,” regardless of long-standing calls by privateness advocates to shut the loophole.