WORCESTER, Mass. - According to a class action lawsuit, a hacking group has claimed it allegedly stole personal records of nearly three billion people from public data.

Bloomberg Law reported the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Florida.

It said the breach was believed to have happened in or around April 2024 and includes names, address histories, relatives and Social Security numbers dating back at least three decades.

The hacking group claims to be selling the records on the dark web for $3.5 million.

A local cyber security expert said if you think you may have been impacted, there are several steps you can take.

"You do have to get on all of your credit immediately” said Betty Lauer, a computer systems engineering technology professor at Quinsigamond Community College. “You have to really pay attention. It may not happen tomorrow, it may happen next week. You need to get on it. You need to put those alerts on your credit. You need to change your password. And you really need to think when you sign up for a new website out there of the data that you're turning over to them. We just check the little box that we agree that they can collect whatever data they're getting off of our laptop [or] off of our phone. And we really shouldn't do that. We should be much more aware."

Lauer also recommends setting up text alerts to notify you when your credit card has been charged.

She said if you think you've been a victim of identity theft, you can contact credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your account.