FBI Probes Dark Web Service Selling 153M+ Driver's Licenses
Original: FBI Probes Service Selling 153M+ Drivers Licenses
Why This Matters
A breach of 153M+ identity documents from a major verification vendor poses systemic risk across financial and government sectors.
The FBI's New Orleans field office launched an inquiry into a dark web service called Nexus, which claims to sell digital scans of over 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver's licenses, allegedly sourced from a Louisiana-based identity verification company breach active for over a year.
A dark web identity theft service called Nexus launched in late August 2026 on Russian cybercrime forum Exploit, advertising access to digital scans of over 170 million identity documents across North America. The service claims to hold 153 million+ driver's licenses, 10 million+ ID cards, 3 million+ travel documents, and 579,000+ medical cards. A blank search on the platform returns roughly 11.5 million pages with 15 results per page, supporting the stated scale. Canadian records total approximately 1.1 million, with Ontario accounting for 473,673 entries. Notable records include driver's licenses of high-ranking U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The FBI New Orleans field office launched a formal inquiry on September 1, 2026. Operators claim data is being continuously exfiltrated from 'a major identity verification company' whose clients include multiple Fortune 500 companies, and that the breach has been ongoing for over a year. Record counts grew by nearly 400,000 in 24 hours. Each record includes front/back scans plus infrared and UV images. KrebsOnSecurity confirmed its own editor's license appeared as a free sample in the initial sales post.