FBI probes sale of millions of driver licenses on dark web
The FBI is examining a breach that exposed digital scans of more than 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver licenses listed for sale on a dark-web marketplace, with investigators still determining the source.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an inquiry into a large-scale leak of driver-license data that appeared on the dark-web marketplace Nexus. The site listed digital scans of over 153 million licenses belonging to individuals in the United States and Canada.
Cybersecurity researcher Brian Krebs, who first reported the incident on his blog, said he was able to verify the authenticity of at least nine of the licenses offered for sale. He noted that the Nexus listing vanished from the dark web shortly after his September 2 story was published.
The FBI confirmed it is “looking into the incident” but declined to provide further details while the investigation remains active.
The origin of the breach has not been established. Krebs suggested that Louisiana-based identity-verification firm idscan.net could be involved; the company, which supplies services to organizations such as Hertz, Target, FedEx and the U.S. Coast Guard, said it is investigating the matter. Efforts to obtain comment from idscan.net have not yet yielded a response.
Authorities have not disclosed whether any arrests have been made or what steps are being taken to mitigate potential misuse of the compromised data.