Hacker Allegedly Stole 153 Million Driver's Licenses, Is Now Selling Them

In a disturbing find, a hacker has been spotted trying to sell access to over 153 million driver’s licenses from the US and Canada, including the IDs for US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and an FBI assistant director. The hacker created a site called Nexus to offer the IDs, according to cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs, who learned the sales after the hacker offered Krebs' Virginia driver’s license as a free sample. The hacker also offered Hegseth's driver's license for $100. “A quick look around Nexus finds they are likely not exaggerating that 153 million number: Running a blank in Nexus (with no parameters entered) returns approximately 11.5 million pages of results, with roughly 15 results displayed per page,” Krebs wrote. The hacker is advertising Nexus in the Russian-language hacking forum Exploit, writing, “We have been continuously exfiltrating new data for over a year into our private database.” The big question is how the IDs were stolen. Krebs suspects the hacker breached New Orleans-based identity provider IDScan.net, which counts FedEx, rental car company Hertz, video game retailer GameStop, and casino operator Caesars Entertainment among its clients. A cybersecurity researcher named Zach Edwards also found his driver’s license on Nexus and noted that his ID was recently scanned while visiting a marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas operated by Planet 13, which has a partnership with IDScan. If real, then the illegal sales could be one of the worst breaches in recent history, exposing millions of Americans to identity theft-related schemes. IDScan and the FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for . But Krebs says both are already investigating. He adds that the mysterious Nexus website has since vanished from the dark web following his report, although it could always reappear through a new domain.

The hacker created a site called Nexus to offer the IDs, according to cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs, who learned the sales after the hacker offered Krebs' Virginia driver’s license as a free sample. The hacker also offered Hegseth's driver's license for $100. “A quick look around Nexus finds they are likely not exaggerating that 153 million number: Running a blank in Nexus (with no parameters entered) returns approximately 11.5 million pages of results, with roughly 15 results displayed per page,” Krebs wrote. The hacker is advertising Nexus in the Russian-language hacking forum Exploit, writing, “We have been continuously exfiltrating new data for over a year into our private database.” The big question is how the IDs were stolen. Krebs suspects the hacker breached New Orleans-based identity provider IDScan.net, which counts FedEx, rental car company Hertz, video game retailer GameStop, and casino operator Caesars Entertainment among its clients. A cybersecurity researcher named Zach Edwards also found his driver’s license on Nexus and noted that his ID was recently scanned while visiting a marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas operated by Planet 13, which has a partnership with IDScan. If real, then the illegal sales could be one of the worst breaches in recent history, exposing millions of Americans to identity theft-related schemes. IDScan and the FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for . But Krebs says both are already investigating. He adds that the mysterious Nexus website has since vanished from the dark web following his report, although it could always reappear through a new domain.

“A quick look around Nexus finds they are likely not exaggerating that 153 million number: Running a blank in Nexus (with no parameters entered) returns approximately 11.5 million pages of results, with roughly 15 results displayed per page,” Krebs wrote. The hacker is advertising Nexus in the Russian-language hacking forum Exploit, writing, “We have been continuously exfiltrating new data for over a year into our private database.” The big question is how the IDs were stolen. Krebs suspects the hacker breached New Orleans-based identity provider IDScan.net, which counts FedEx, rental car company Hertz, video game retailer GameStop, and casino operator Caesars Entertainment among its clients. A cybersecurity researcher named Zach Edwards also found his driver’s license on Nexus and noted that his ID was recently scanned while visiting a marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas operated by Planet 13, which has a partnership with IDScan. If real, then the illegal sales could be one of the worst breaches in recent history, exposing millions of Americans to identity theft-related schemes. IDScan and the FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for . But Krebs says both are already investigating. He adds that the mysterious Nexus website has since vanished from the dark web following his report, although it could always reappear through a new domain.

The hacker is advertising Nexus in the Russian-language hacking forum Exploit, writing, “We have been continuously exfiltrating new data for over a year into our private database.” The big question is how the IDs were stolen. Krebs suspects the hacker breached New Orleans-based identity provider IDScan.net, which counts FedEx, rental car company Hertz, video game retailer GameStop, and casino operator Caesars Entertainment among its clients. A cybersecurity researcher named Zach Edwards also found his driver’s license on Nexus and noted that his ID was recently scanned while visiting a marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas operated by Planet 13, which has a partnership with IDScan. If real, then the illegal sales could be one of the worst breaches in recent history, exposing millions of Americans to identity theft-related schemes. IDScan and the FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for . But Krebs says both are already investigating. He adds that the mysterious Nexus website has since vanished from the dark web following his report, although it could always reappear through a new domain.

The big question is how the IDs were stolen. Krebs suspects the hacker breached New Orleans-based identity provider IDScan.net, which counts FedEx, rental car company Hertz, video game retailer GameStop, and casino operator Caesars Entertainment among its clients. A cybersecurity researcher named Zach Edwards also found his driver’s license on Nexus and noted that his ID was recently scanned while visiting a marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas operated by Planet 13, which has a partnership with IDScan. If real, then the illegal sales could be one of the worst breaches in recent history, exposing millions of Americans to identity theft-related schemes. IDScan and the FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for . But Krebs says both are already investigating. He adds that the mysterious Nexus website has since vanished from the dark web following his report, although it could always reappear through a new domain.

If real, then the illegal sales could be one of the worst breaches in recent history, exposing millions of Americans to identity theft-related schemes. IDScan and the FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for . But Krebs says both are already investigating. He adds that the mysterious Nexus website has since vanished from the dark web following his report, although it could always reappear through a new domain.