The FBI has launched an investigation after millions of stolen American and Canadian driver’s licenses were reportedly leaked on the dark web. The investigation follows investigative reporting that linked IDScan.net, based in New Orleans, to the security breach.
Officially, the FBI New Orleans field office said that although it was “looking into the incident,” it could not comment “due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.”
Independent journalist Brian Krebs reported last week that he found a dark web service called Nexus selling digital copies of millions of U.S. and Canadian driver’s licenses. He claimed to have verified the data being offered with nine individuals.
Nexus reportedly advertised that more than 153 million digital copies of U.S. and Canadian driver’s licenses were available. The website also claimed it had millions of additional identity documents in its possession, including travel documents and hundreds of thousands of medical records.
“Based on interviews with individuals whose licenses are available for purchase on this service, it appears to be siphoning images collected by a widely-used identity verification company based in Louisiana,” Krebs wrote.
According to Krebs, Nexus seemed to update its database of stolen information in real time, suggesting a live breach was feeding it. He was able to trace the stolen driver’s license images back to an active breach at New Orleans-based IDScan.net.
“At this point I’m not able to share any additional information, but the updates you have provided have been welcome, and helpful to our team’s investigation,” Jillian Kossman, a marketing and operations leader at IDScan.net, told Krebs.
It could be one of the largest leaks of its kind in history
Krebs also noted that the alleged breach included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s driver’s license. An official confirmed with Nexstar that the War Department is “aware of these reports and is evaluating them.”
Krebs claimed he learned about the website after seeing an advertisement on a Russian cybercrime forum offering a free sample of his own driver’s license.
If verified, this hack might rank among the biggest exposes of North American government-issued identity cards in history.
“There’s never been a breach of driver’s licenses at this scale,” Zach Edwards, a threat researcher at the cybersecurity company Infoblox, told Reuters, adding that his own license was available for sale on the site. Edwards stated that the ongoing nature of the breach “means that this attack created legitimate national security risks for high-profile individuals.”