Overview
- The FBI’s New Orleans field office opened an official inquiry on Sept. 2 after reporting showed a dark‑web service called Nexus was offering more than 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver’s license scans.
- Nexus advertised a searchable trove that also listed millions of other ID and travel documents and posted sample records including journalist Brian Krebs’s and a U.S. cabinet official’s licenses before the site went offline.
- Reporting and researcher checks tied many of the samples to a widely used identity‑verification vendor, IDScan.net, by matching embedded timestamps to real transactions at businesses that use that vendor.
- The exposed files reportedly include front and back images plus infrared and ultraviolet scans that cannot be changed, and IDScan.net says it is investigating but has not confirmed unauthorized access or the full scope of any compromise.
- Security experts say the incident shows how centralizing permanent ID images with third‑party verification firms raises long‑term risks for victims and could drive calls for stricter data‑minimization rules and oversight.