2.6M Dental Records Leaked 🦷 + Your SSN May Be at a School You Never Attended

Two data breaches in today's news are a wake-up call: your personal information can end up exposed through organizations you'd never expect — and the damage can follow you for years.

🦷 ShinyHunters Dumps 234GB of Dental Health Data on 2.6 Million People

The ShinyHunters ransomware gang — one of the most prolific data theft groups around — has leaked a massive 234GB trove of data stolen from DentaQuest, a major dental benefits provider. DentaQuest refused to pay the ransom, so the attackers made good on their threat and published the data publicly. The breach affects 2.6 million people and includes some of the most sensitive information you can imagine: full names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, government-issued IDs, and health insurance details.

If you're a DentaQuest member or have ever used their services, your information may be out there. This is a textbook example of why ransomware gangs are so dangerous — they don't just lock your data, they threaten to weaponize it against you. Check HaveIBeenPwned.com to see if your email was part of the leak.

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🏛️ Columbia University Exposed 1.8 Million SSNs — Including People Who Never Went There

Here's a disturbing one: a 2025 data breach at Columbia University exposed 1.8 million Social Security Numbers — and many of those people have absolutely no connection to the school. How? Decades-old recruitment records and test data sat forgotten in a legacy database that Columbia missed when they thought they were cleaning up SSN storage. People who simply took a standardized test years ago had their SSNs sitting on Columbia's servers, completely unknown to them.

Making matters worse, Columbia took months to respond to basic questions from affected people, and now faces a proposed class-action lawsuit and regulatory scrutiny. This story is a stark reminder that data you gave to one organization long ago can resurface in a breach somewhere you'd never think to look. It's worth freezing your credit if you haven't already — it's free, and it's one of the most effective things you can do to protect yourself.

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Stay ahead of threats like these with GOCO Security at gocosecurity.com.