153M+ driver’s licenses for sale on new dark web platform

A new dark web platform called Nexus claimed to be selling 153 million driver’s license scans and millions of other identity and medical cards.

The collection included more than 153 million driver’s licenses, 10 million ID cards, 3 million travel documents, and 579,000 medical cards, including marijuana dispensary cards, according to reports .

The trove of driver’s license scans reported by KrebsOnSecurity is a sharp reminder that identity verification is not a harmless box-ticking exercise.

The FBI’s New Orleans field office has opened an investigation into an apparent breach involving identity verification provider IDScan. net. The company said it was investigating.

IDScan.net advertises as follows:

“We provide simple, secure solutions to help dispensaries reduce liability and protect their licenses by validating IDs, including a customer’s age, in a matter of seconds.”

The allegedly exposed records were especially concerning because some included more than a basic photo of an ID. KrebsOnSecurity found records containing front-and-back images, as well as infrared and ultraviolet scans, with timestamps that appeared to align with the holders’ travel or car-rental activity.

That matters because a driver’s license is far more useful to an identity thief than a password. You can reset a password. You cannot easily replace your face, date of birth, address, or license number, particularly when they’re accompanied by high-resolution images of your government-issued ID.

The age-verification problem

Age verification has become a common justification for asking people to upload an ID, take a selfie, or submit both to a third-party identity verification provider.

We have previously warned about the privacy and security trade-offs in age-verification systems, particularly those that require people to submit copies of government-issued ID.

A new dark web platform called Nexus claimed to be selling 153 million driver’s license scans and millions of other identity and medical cards.

According to reports , the collection included more than 153 million driver’s licenses, 10 million ID cards, 3 million travel documents, and 579,000 medical cards, including marijuana dispensary cards.

The trove of driver’s license scans reported by KrebsOnSecurity is a sharp reminder that identity verification is not a harmless box-ticking exercise.

The FBI’s New Orleans field office has opened an investigation into an apparent breach involving identity verification provider IDScan. net. The company said it was investigating.

IDScan.net advertises as follows:

“We provide simple, secure solutions to help dispensaries reduce liability and protect their licenses by validating IDs, including a customer’s age, in a matter of seconds.”

The allegedly exposed records were especially concerning because some included more than a basic photo of an ID. KrebsOnSecurity found records containing front-and-back images, as well as infrared and ultraviolet scans, with timestamps that appeared to align with the holders’ travel or car-rental activity.

That matters because a driver’s license is far more useful to an identity thief than a password. You can reset a password. You cannot easily replace your face, date of birth, address, or license number, particularly when they’re accompanied by high-resolution images of your government-issued ID.

The age-verification problem

Age verification has become a common justification for asking people to upload an ID, take a selfie, or submit both to a third-party identity verification provider.