HIGH SEVERITY

Public Business Data Breach

Verified by ObscureIQ Intelligence

7.5Severity
27.9MRecords
6Data Fields
2021Year

Impact & Downstream Threats

This breach carries high risk due to the nature of exposed data fields and the scale of affected records.

Primary downstream threats:
  • Identity verification bypass using name + date of birth combination
  • SIM swap attacks where phone numbers are present
  • Targeted phishing campaigns using exposed email addresses
  • Doxxing risk from physical address exposure
  • Employment-based social engineering using job and employer data

Breach Intelligence

EntityPublic Business
Breach DateAugust 2021
DisclosureOctober 2023
Records Exposed~27.9M
Attack VectorUnknown
SourceHave I Been Pwned / ObscureIQ intelligence
StatusConfirmed

Executive Summary

In approximately August 2021, hundreds of gigabytes of business data collated from public sources was obtained and later published to a popular hacking forum. Sourced from a customer of Bureau van Dijk's (BvD) "Orbis" product, the corpus of data released contained hundreds of millions of lines about corporations and individuals, including personal information such as names and dates of birth. The data also included 28M unique email addresses along with physical addresses (presumedly corporate locations), phone numbers and job titles. There was no unauthorised access to BvD's systems, nor did the incident expose any of their or parent company's Moody's clients.

About Public Business

Public Business is an organization whose data was exposed in this breach. The dataset has been verified by ObscureIQ intelligence and indexed across breach notification platforms.

Data Points Exposed

Verified fields in the released dataset:
Dates of birth
Email addresses
Full names
Job / occupation
Phone numbers
Physical addresses

Dark Web Verification

Status: Confirmed

  • Dataset containing approximately 27.9M records identified in breach intelligence sources.
  • The data is indexed and searchable across breach notification platforms.

Recommended Actions

⚠️ Do not assume this is low sensitivity.

Expect Targeted Phishing
Watch for emails referencing this breach. Verify communications through official channels.
Secure Email & Enable MFA
Email compromise is often the first pivot point. Enable multi-factor authentication.
Monitor Financial Accounts
Watch for unauthorized credit applications and suspicious activity.
Check Your Exposure
ObscureIQ clients: this breach is indexed in your profile.
Non-clients may request a breach impact review.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened in the Public Business data breach?

In August 2021, Public Business experienced a data breach that exposed approximately 27.9M records containing personal information.

What data was exposed?

The exposed data includes fields such as date of birth, email address, full name, job information:job title, phone number.

How many records were affected?

Approximately 27.9M records were affected based on current breach intelligence.

Protect Yourself

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ObscureIQ Advisory

We combine proprietary dark web access with commercial and restricted breach intelligence to verify exposure and assess real-world risk.

If you are:
  • A public-facing individual
  • A high-profile executive
  • A customer of Public Business
  • Or concerned about credential reuse
Services
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Classification Tags

EmailPhoneAddressDOB

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