COMMENTARY: Nearly 3 million Americans could soon find themselves victims of identity theft after their records were allegedly stolen in a major data breach.
Back in April, a group of hackers infiltrated National Public Data, an organization that offers background check services and stores data on virtually everything needed to impersonate someone online: full name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, phone number, nicknames and birth dates. That information is now reportedly for sale for upwards of $3.5 million.
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While it’s alarming to learn of a potential data breach of this scale, it’s not a new problem. Data breaches like this one have been on the rise for years. In 2024, bad actors have stolen more than 1 billion records and consumers have submitted nearly 5.7 million reports of fraud and identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission.
Identity fraud has emerged as a serious and growing issue. We can and must do better.
Our nation now faces a significant two-fold identity challenge: stopping identity fraud and identifying traditionally hard-to-identify people, including historically marginalized communities.
For far too long, we’ve relied on legacy approaches that rely solely on credit header data to verify someone’s identity. Credit header data alone offers an incomplete picture a person’s identity, opening the door to fraud and leaving behind people who don’t have access to credit. This challenge gets compounded by the fact that fraudsters, nation-states, and criminal organizations are using AI tools to commit identity fraud at scale for low cost.
We need an innovative approach to digital identity verification that can root out fraud, while ensuring a secure and equitable experience for people trying to access government benefits or engage in the digital economy.
Here are five steps that businesses, policymakers and government leaders can take:
While data breaches are nothing new, the National Public Data incident has caught the public’s attention. This event must serve as a wake-up call to businesspeople, policymakers, and government leaders on the need to address our nation’s larger identity challenge before the next attack happens.
Jordan Burris, vice president and general manager, Public Sector Solutions, Socure
SC Media Perspectives columns are written by a trusted community of SC Media cybersecurity subject matter experts. Each contribution has a goal of bringing a unique voice to important cybersecurity topics. Content strives to be of the highest quality, objective and non-commercial.
