FBI Opens Inquiry Into Service Selling 153 Million Driver Licenses

September 2, 2026 at 04:07 AM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

The FBI's New Orleans field office has opened an inquiry into a dark web service selling scans of more than 153 million driver licenses from the U.S. and Canada. The service, called Nexus, claims to have obtained the images from an active breach at a major identity verification company. The records include licenses belonging to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior officials.

Key Facts

The FBI's New Orleans field office launched an official inquiry into the source of the images on Aug. 31.
Nexus claims to hold more than 153 million driver licenses from the U.S. and Canada, over 10 million identification cards, more than 3 million travel documents, and at least 579,000 medical cards.
The service was advertised on the Russian cybercrime forum Exploit on Aug. 31, offering access to digital scans of identity documents on more than 170 million people in North America.
A blank search in Nexus returns approximately 11.5 million pages of results, with roughly 15 results per page.
The number of driver license records increased by nearly 400,000 in the span of 24 hours.

The Nexus Service

Nexus was launched on the dark web this week and is selling digital scans of driver licenses from people in the United States and Canada. The service was advertised by a new user on the Russian cybercrime forum Exploit on Aug. 31. The proprietor offered a Virginia driver license belonging to security researcher Brian Krebs as a free sample in the initial sales thread. Nexus claims to have more than 153 million driver licenses, over 10 million identification cards, more than 3 million travel documents, and at least 579,000 medical cards. The records include not only driver licenses but also marijuana dispensary cards, with some records listing their source as 'CDL' or 'CAC'.

FBI Investigation

The FBI's New Orleans field office launched an official inquiry into the source of the images on Aug. 31. The inquiry follows KrebsOnSecurity's report that the service appears to be siphoning images collected by a widely-used identity verification company based in Louisiana. The records include the driver license of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and several other high-ranking U.S. government officials. The people behind Nexus claim the license images come from an active breach at a major identity verification company whose customers include multiple Fortune 500 companies.