(Credit: Douglas Sacha via Getty Images)
National Public Data, the Florida-based company behind a major leak of Social Security numbers, has officially shut down, according to the data broker’s website.
“It is with sincere regret that we inform you that National Public Data, after two decades serving the data industry, has closed,” the site now says. It ceased data sales in September.
The company’s sister property, recordschecks.net, posted a similar notice, effectively bringing an end to the companies' sales following a breach that exposed an estimated 272 million unique Social Security numbers and 600 million phone numbers.
Parent company Jerico Pictures is facing a wave of lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny for losing the data to a hacker who breached National Public Data a year ago. The stolen information—which includes full names, addresses and dates of birth—was later leaked in an online forum, making it easy for hackers to exploit the data for identity theft and other scams.
In October, Jerico Pictures filed for bankruptcy in a Florida court to help it respond to the barrage of litigation and investigations. At the time, it even conceded it’ll likely need to pay for credit monitoring services “for hundreds of millions of potentially impacted individuals.” In addition, the company reported losing customers, citing the reputational damage from the breach.
However, a Florida judge rejected the bankruptcy filing after the United States Trustee Program under the Justice Department called for the dismissal.
"The Debtor [Jerico Pictures] lacks the income and resources to demonstrate a reasonable likelihood of rehabilitation,” the US Trustee for Florida, Mary Ida Townson, told the court. “The Debtor has no business to reorganize. There appear to be limited assets to liquidate. It appears that this case was filed for the sole purpose of providing the Debtor with ‘breathing room’ to deal with its regulatory issues, with no concomitant plan as to how it intends to satisfy the claims of affected individuals who may reach into the multi-millions internationally.”
It's unclear will happen to what’s left of National Public Data. The owner of Jerico Pictures, Salvatore Verini, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But in an October court filing, the company said: “Absence a bankruptcy proceeding, [Jerico Pictures] will be left to fight a morass of litigation, and each creditor will be left with the burden of pursuing their rights, conducting their own discovery and pursuing what limited resources remain.”
According to a separate court filing, Jerico Pictures has listed attorneys general offices in all 50 US states as creditors—a sign that prosecutors across the country plan on holding the company accountable for the breach.