An official probe by the FBI’s New Orleans field office is underway into an apparent breach at idscan.net, a Louisiana identity verification firm, after scans of more than 153 million US and Canadian driver licenses went on sale on the dark web.
The service, called Nexus, surfaced August 31 on the Russian-language Exploit forum and also lists more than 10 million ID cards, over 3 million travel documents, and at least 579,000 medical cards. It grew by nearly 400,000 license records in a single day, according to Krebs on Security, which found scans belonging to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and an FBI assistant director among the listings.
Timestamps attached to the image files correlate with moments victims handed over identification at car rental counters and dispensaries, both client categories of idscan.net, whose technology scans IDs with infrared and ultraviolet light. More than 21 million verifications run through the firm’s platform each month at 20,000 locations, with Hertz, Target and FedEx among the customers, idscan.net says. idscan.net told Krebs it is investigating the matter.
Hours after the story published, Nexus replaced its login page with the message “This service is no longer available.” Researchers warn the trove carries long-term identity risks because driver licenses remain accepted proof for opening credit, and people fleeing abuse or in witness protection cannot simply change how they look.
