A digital scan of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s driver’s license is among more than 170 million identity documents that can now be purchased on the dark web.
The scans, as reported by cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs on Tuesday, are linked to a new identity theft service known as Nexus. The service was discovered one day earlier when it was advertised on a Russian cybercrime forum.
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Nexus claims to offer more than 153 million scans of drivers licenses from the U.S. and Canada, an additional 10 million ID cards, three million travel documents and international IDs, as well as roughly 579,000 medical IDs.
Krebs, who reported gaining access to the service, says that an undetermined number of other forms of identification are also on the site. They include marijuana dispensary cards; “CDLs,” presumably a reference to commercial drivers licenses; and CAC cards, which Krebs said may be common access cards used by government employees to gain access to government buildings and secure spaces.
The people behind Nexus — not to be confused with LexisNexis, the U.S. data analytics firm — claim that the documents are being obtained from an ongoing breach at a major identity verification company.
“We have been continuously exfiltrating new data for over a year into our private database,” the group behind Nexus said in a post to the cybercrime forum. “Records are available to preview before purchase with pertinent information redacted. Customer photos are displayed if available.”
Number of stolen IDs growing
With the number of IDs available in Nexus increasing by nearly 400,000 in just 24 hours, Krebs said he believes Nexus’ claim that the breach is ongoing.
Based on Krebs’ analysis of the data, the source of the IDs appears to be IDscan.net, a Mexican company with a U.S. headquarters in New Orleans. In a statement on Tuesday, the company said it was investigating the matter.
“At this point I’m not able to share any additional information, but the updates you have provided have been welcome, and helpful to our team’s investigation,” IDscan marketing and operations leader Jillian Kossman told Krebs.
Material from the breach could be used for a wide-range of crimes, including identity theft as well as tracking down domestic abuse victims and those placed in witness protection.
With advancements in publicly available facial recognition technology, tracking down documents linked to high-profile individuals could prove easy.
The presence of documents linked to a high-ranking government official like Hegseth also carries national security implications.
The FBI launched an investigation into Nexus on Tuesday, Krebs reported. But that investigation may prove difficult. After Krebs published his investigation, the dark web site for Nexus disappeared, at least temporarily. It now displays a message: “This service is no longer available.”
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