Dark Web Service Sells 153 Million Driver's Licenses; FBI Opens Probe
A new identity theft service on the dark web, dubbed Nexus, is selling digital scans of more than 153 million driver's licenses from people in the United States and Canada. The service advertises on the Russian cybercrime forum Exploit and claims to hold over 10 million ID cards, three million travel documents, and at least 579,000 medical cards. KrebsOnSecurity confirms the scale appears genuine, with a blank search returning roughly 11.5 million pages of results.
The records include licenses from both countries, though the vast majority target Americans, with only about 1.1 million Canadian records, concentrated in Ontario. The database also contains marijuana dispensary cards and records marked CAC, which may refer to Common Access Cards used for physical access to U.S. government buildings. High-ranking government officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have their licenses available for purchase.
Interviews with individuals whose licenses appear on the service suggest the images are being siphoned from a widely used identity verification company based in Louisiana. The FBI's New Orleans field office has launched an official inquiry into the source of the leaked images. Anyone concerned can check whether their credentials appear in such services, but the investigation is ongoing and the full scope of the breach remains unclear.