Hackers had a live feed of a U.S. ID-scan company's data for over a year
New CapabilitiesA dark web service sold scans of 153 million driver's licenses; the FBI is investigating IDScan.net
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Overview
Updated 1 hour agoA dark web service called Nexus has been selling scans of more than 153 million driver's licenses from the U.S. and Canada. The images match the work of IDScan.net, a Louisiana company that verifies IDs for Hertz, Target, FedEx and others.
The attackers kept a live feed of every document IDScan.net scanned for over a year. The trove grew by nearly 400,000 records in a single day after the breach became public, and it includes infrared and ultraviolet images that can defeat the very sensors meant to catch fakes.
Why it matters
Stolen scans include infrared and ultraviolet images that can defeat the fake-ID detectors meant to catch fraud.
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People Involved
Organizations Involved
Louisiana company that verifies identity documents for Hertz, Target, FedEx, and others.
Federal bureau field office investigating the source of the leaked license scans.
Dark web service selling scans of more than 153 million driver's licenses and other ID documents.
Timeline
June 2025 September 2026
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Live-feed scale emerges
Latest RevelationReports detail the year-long live feed; trove grows by 400,000 records in a day before Nexus goes offline.
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KrebsOnSecurity publishes findings
RevelationInvestigation links the leaked data to IDScan.net; officials including Secretary Hegseth are among those exposed.
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FBI opens investigation
InvestigationNew Orleans field office opens a formal inquiry into the apparent IDScan.net breach.
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Nexus service launches
IncidentService appears on Exploit forum offering 153 million license scans with Krebs's license as a free sample.
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Continuous exfiltration begins
BreachAttackers begin siphoning IDScan.net scans; a timestamped license dated June 2025 confirms the start.
Historical Context
2 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.
Equifax data breach (2017)
Hackers exploited a web application flaw at Equifax and accessed the personal data of about 147 million Americans over several months, including Social Security numbers, birth dates, and addresses.
Equifax's CEO resigned, Congress held hearings, and the company paid at least $575 million in a settlement with federal and state regulators.
The breach became the benchmark for identity-data exposure, prompting the FTC to expand its data-security enforcement and states to tighten breach-notification laws.
Like Equifax, IDScan.net concentrates sensitive identity data in one vendor. The breach shows the same concentration risk and the same pattern of delayed public disclosure.
Optus data breach (2022)
Australia's second-largest telecom was breached, exposing driver's license and passport numbers for more than 10 million customers, including identity documents rather than just account data.
Optus faced a class action and government criticism; the Australian government debated new rules on data retention and breach disclosure.
The incident pushed regulators to treat physical identity documents in corporate databases as high-risk data warranting stricter handling rules.
Optus set the precedent for breaches that expose government-issued identity documents. The Nexus leak goes further by including the infrared and UV scan layers used to verify authenticity.
