Data breach exposed tens of millions of US drivers' licenses, report says
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The FBI is investigating a report that tens of millions of American and Canadian drivers’ licenses are being sold on the dark web.
The website was first reported by independent journalist Brian Krebs, who said he found millions of digital scans for sale of drivers licenses from people in the U.S. and Canada.
Drivers’ licenses exposed
What we know:
Krebs said he found the site, Nexus, advertised on a Russian cybercrime forum. He said his own driver’s license was available on the site as a free sample. The site also had millions of other ID cards and travel documents, along with hundreds of thousands of medical records. Krebs said that the site appeared to be updating the stolen data in real time, a sign of a live breach.
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The website disappeared shortly after Krebs published his report. Krebs also said it "appears to be siphoning images collected by a widely-used identity verification company."
The FBI is investigating a report that tens of millions of American and Canadian drivers’ licenses are being sold on the dark web (Getty Images)
IDScan.net, a New Orleans-based identity verification company, told Krebs they’re investigating the issue.
What we don't know:
The FBI told Reuters it is "looking into the incident" but declined to comment further. It’s unclear who could be behind the site or how many ID cards have been exposed.
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Why you should care:
The reported breach could be one of the largest-ever leaks of government ID cards in North America, raising the risk of identity theft and fraud for millions.
What they're saying:
"There's never been a breach of driver's licenses at this scale," Zach Edwards, a threat researcher at Infoblox, told Reuters. "[It] means that this attack created legitimate national security risks for high-profile individuals."
The Source: This report includes information from independent journalist Brian Krebs and Reuters.