Social Security number breach: Do this to find out if you’re one of the billions affected

[DougC]

Read more at Mashable blog

In what may be the most bonkers news to happen this year, billions of Americans had their most personal, sensitive info swiped by hackers late last year — and this massive breach wasn't announced until just last week. The devastating data leak at the hands of National Public Data is a nightmare, exposing three decades’ worth of Social Security numbers on the online black market. Yep, it’s as bad as it sounds.

Pentester, a cybersecurity firm, launched a tool that lets you check if your data was caught up in a recent breach. To find out, visit npd.pentester.com, enter your first and last name, along with your birth year, and you’ll get a list of any breached accounts associated with you.

The tool even shows the last four digits of the compromised Social Security numbers, making it easier to confirm if your information is at risk.

I checked and my info has been put out on the dark web. Due to previous hacks over the years I get several free credit checks every month and other security reviews to help avoid losing my identity. Be proactive and protect yourself and family. I am big fan of multi-factor authentication for my sensitive accounts.

 

[oldag]

Are you sure pentester is not just a phishing operation?

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Are you sure pentester is not just a phishing operation?

I was waiting for someone else to go first...

 

[cycleguy2300]

Never heard of them and they are asking for way more info than I would be willing or recommend anyone giving out

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

 

[DestroyerTDS]

I heard and tried Pentester, so did several friends and family, it works well and we found about half of our SS were compromised. Went in froze those accounts at the three credit bureaus!

 

[alternative]

Tried it too. Name, State, Birth Year. Nothing alarming. Didn't know there were billions of Americans. Probably all voting democrat too.

 

[kbaxter60]

I heard and tried Pentester, so did several friends and family, it works well and we found about half of our SS were compromised. Went in froze those accounts at the three credit bureaus!

Thanks. I guess. I am in there. Had all my prior addresses, too.
Sigh.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Had a bunch of my old addresses, but not my current one I've been at for 14 years.

 

[Eastexasrick]

Checked. They had current and secondary addresses. I did the extended, they had way too much. Making some changes.

 

[striker55]

Google has something that they let you know where you show up and you can ask to be deleted. I've used it and so far the only request denied was from a genealogy website.

 

[striker55]

I couldn't enter my birthday, what did I do wrong?

 

[MountainGirl]

I couldn't enter my birthday, what did I do wrong?

The wheel doesn't scroll that far down.
Sorry, feeling playful this morning.

 

[dsgrey]

I don't believe that website shows a complete list. It starts listing without a middle initial then increments alphabetically from A through J and it stops. Anyway, really doesn't matter since I've had a permanent freeze at all 3 credit reporting agencies for years. If I apply for a loan, real simple to go online and unfreeze the account for 24 hours.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

I couldn't enter my birthday, what did I do wrong?

They want the "year" (19xx) not the day.

 

[striker55]

They want the "year" (19xx) not the day.

D'oh

 

[oldag]

Anyway, really doesn't matter since I've had a permanent freeze at all 3 credit reporting agencies for years. If I apply for a loan, real simple to go online and unfreeze the account for 24 hours.

This.

 

[DougC]

Are you sure pentester is not just a phishing operation?

Good to be suspicious. I was as well. If you can believe anything written on the internet here is another story about this issue and below video.

 

[Rafe]

Ouch. I'm in there with 7 listings, one of which--and it's definitely me because of the birth date and the SSN--is an address in Plano. I've never lived anywhere in the Dallas area, so methinks in addition to the data breach issue that I have an error on one or more of the credit reports that I hadn't seen. Last time that happened was circa 2000 and took me 6 months to get the erroneous address removed; that one was in the Detroit area.

This is one of the huge problems with the whole credit reporting schema. The companies present you with questions to validate that it's really you, but those questions are derived from the data on hand...some of which may be completely wrong. Like that fantasy Detroit address from 2000. And on one record they showed me as having had a phone number in the 909 area code (but with a correct address in Texas), which is around San Bernardino, CA. Never lived or worked there, either. So if they give me a listing of phone numbers and ask me which one is valid and one them is that 909 number, and I correctly answer "none of the above," then I fail the quiz and can't authenticate myself.

 

[DougC]

Read more at Mashable blog "... from the Social Security Administration (SSA), here are the steps you should take if your personal data has been breached:

 

[striker55]

Locked down credit on all three, couldn't hurt.