[More than 600,000 people were affected this time. While this is a minor breach compared to the 2.9 billion people affected by the National Public Data hack, it is still frightening.

The SL Data Services company in question was found online. It is not password protected and is not encrypted.

Jeremiah Fowler, a cybersecurity researcher, discovered the information breach (or lack of file protection). The breach files included vehicle records, court records, property ownership reports, full names, addresses, email addresses, employment details, social media accounts, phone numbers, and criminal records.

All were contained in PDF files, most of which were labeled “background checks.” The database contained a total of 713.1 GB of files.

Thankfully, the information is no longer available to the public, but it took some time before it was properly locked down. It took a full week from the time the responsible release of information notice was sent until SL Data Services could no longer use it. A full week is a long time for information on 600,000 people to be placed on publicly accessible files.

Unfortunately, those targeted by the breach may not even know their information was included. This can be even more troublesome because background checks are usually performed by others and the person whose background is being checked rarely knows which background check company they used.

Although Social Security numbers and payment information are not part of the breach, much data about those affected is publicly available, and fraudsters can use that information to trick unsuspecting victims in social engineering attacks.

Thankfully, there is no evidence that malicious actors have accessed public databases or collected sensitive information, but there is also no evidence that they have not. Only time will tell, but if we suddenly start seeing an increase in social engineering attacks, we will know something has happened.