In August of this year, it was revealed that hackers claiming the screen name USDoD were behind a massive data breach at National Public Data, a public records data provider. The data breach exposed the personal information of more than 2.9 billion individuals, including Social Security numbers (SSNs), addresses, and full names dating back more than 30 years.

Today, the Brazilian Federal Police (PF) announced the arrest of USDoD in Belo Horizonte/MG, Brazil. The arrest is part of an effort by the PF to investigate data breaches in Brazil and internationally.

“On Wednesday (16/10), the Federal Police launched a data breach operation with the aim of investigating the intrusion into the systems of the Federal Police and other international organizations,” a press release posted by the PF reads.

“On May 22, 2020 and February 22, 2022, search and seizure warrants and preventive arrest warrants were served in Belo Horizonte/MG City against subjects suspected of being involved in two publications selling federal police data.”

The National Public Data breach became known after a class action lawsuit was filed in Florida; USDod had attempted to sell or may have sold data on the dark web, demanding $3.5 million in one screenshot.

Oddly enough, as Bleeping Computer noted, USDoD's identity was allegedly revealed by the Portuguese site Techmundo in August. The report revealed that USDoD is a 33-year-old man named Luan BG who lives in Brazil.

If the name Crowdstrike sounds familiar, you may recognize it from the global blackout that occurred when the company released an update to its system that crashed computers at businesses and governments around the world.

In an interview with HackRead, Ruane seemed to acknowledge that the reports were true.

“So congratulations to Crowdstrike for doxing me, they are late to the party, intel421 Plus and several other companies were already doxing me before the Infragard hack,” he told HackRead.

In a statement, Ruane claims that he “can do a lot for the country” and invites authorities to arrest him; it seems clear that PF was probably helped by the Crowdstrike report and this interview.

“The prisoner bragged that he was responsible for several cyber invasions carried out in several countries and that on his website he disclosed confidential data on 80,000 members of InfraGard, a partnership between the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and a private critical infrastructure entity claimed,” they wrote in a press release.

They added that they are investigating whether Ruane (USDoD) is responsible for other data breaches.

This is not even the biggest data breach of the year, but there are ways to check if personal and financial information is flowing over the Internet.

Cybernews created a data leak checker after the massive January leak, as well as the ever-popular data leak site HaveIBeenPwned. [The best antivirus software can help protect against malware and other attacks, but for the best protection, it should be paired with the best identity theft protection services. [This is because hackers often use phishing attacks as a way to infect smartphones and computers with malware or trick them into handing over their data. At the same time, one should closely monitor bank accounts and other financial accounts for suspicious activity.

The fallout from this breach is ongoing, and with a breach of this magnitude it will be some time before the full extent of the damage is known.