--- title: IDScan data breach exposed 150 million driver's... description: Identity verification company IDScan confirmed hackers breached its cloud systems, stealing over 150 million driver's license records and other government ID... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/idscan-data-breach-exposed-150-million-driver-s-licenses-including-senior-government-officials-lgnx9pa1f twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: IDScan data breach exposed 150 million driver's licenses, including senior government officials | daily.dev og:description: Identity verification company IDScan confirmed hackers breached its cloud systems, stealing over 150 million driver's license records and other government ID... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/idscan-data-breach-exposed-150-million-driver-s-licenses-including-senior-government-officials-lgnx9pa1f og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/LgNx9pa1F.png og:image:alt: IDScan data breach exposed 150 million driver's licenses, including senior government officials og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # IDScan data breach exposed 150 million driver's licenses, including senior government officials **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 2 min read · 3 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary Identity verification company IDScan confirmed hackers breached its cloud systems, stealing over 150 million driver's license records and other government ID documents from U.S. and Canadian residents. The breach surfaced after security journalist Brian Krebs found a dark web site selling searchable access to the data, which reportedly includes full names, ID numbers, and photos, with the U.S. Secretary of Defense among those affected. Reporting from Mike Masnick indicates attackers had a live feed of every document IDScan scanned for over a year, meaning ongoing real-time exposure rather than a single snapshot. The FBI and Pentagon are investigating, while IDScan has not disclosed the number of individuals affected, addressed possible ransom demands, or explained how the intrusion went undetected so long. ## Content A dark web service called Nexus has been selling searchable access to more than 153 million scanned driver's licenses from people across the US and Canada. The source: IDScan.net, a Louisiana-based identity verification company used by Hertz, FedEx, Target, thousands of cannabis dispensaries, and various age-verification clients. Brian Krebs broke the story, and IDScan has since confirmed the breach. The FBI's New Orleans field office has opened an inquiry, and the Pentagon is investigating separately after reports that the Secretary of Defense's driver's license is among the exposed records. ## What was taken The stolen data includes full names, driver's license numbers, other government ID numbers, and photos. IDScan has not disclosed how many individuals are affected, and has not responded to questions about whether a ransom demand was made. ## A live feed, not just a one-time theft The more disturbing detail is how long this went on. According to reporting by Mike Masnick at Techdirt, hackers weren't just sitting on a stolen database - they had what amounted to a live feed of every ID the company scanned, in real time, for over a year. New records were still being added at a rate of roughly 400,000 per day even as the breach was being disclosed publicly. IDScan had marketed itself as secure and compliant with GDPR and CCPA. The company had also publicly supported legislation like KOSA that mandates age verification online - the kind of law that pushes more businesses to collect and store exactly this type of identity data. ## The broader problem This breach is a fairly direct argument against centralized identity verification systems. Any company that scans and stores government IDs at scale becomes a high-value target. IDScan's clients weren't doing anything unusual - age verification and identity checks are standard practice across retail, logistics, and cannabis. But the result is a single point of failure holding over 150 million people's government ID data, apparently undetected for more than a year. The records reportedly include high-profile individuals, which will draw attention. But the 153 million ordinary people whose licenses were quietly siphoned while IDScan promoted its security compliance are the real story. ## Questions this post answers ### What happened in the IDScan data breach? Hackers broke into IDScan's cloud systems and stole over 150 million driver's licenses and other government-issued ID records covering U.S. and Canadian residents, including full names, ID numbers, and photos. The stolen data was found being sold with searchable access on a dark web site, and reportedly includes records belonging to the U.S. Secretary of Defense. The FBI and Pentagon are investigating. _Security teams tracking identity-verification breaches like this one follow incident details on daily.dev._ ### Why is the IDScan breach considered worse than a typical data breach? Attackers reportedly had a live feed of every identity document IDScan scanned for over a year, rather than accessing a single static database snapshot. This means every driver's license or government ID processed through IDScan's systems during that period was potentially exposed in real time as it was scanned, not just sitting in a compromised archive. _Anyone assessing vendor risk from identity-verification providers can follow breach analysis like this on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@20rp** · 2 upvotes > I can't wait for people to start impersonating Kegsbreath and commit crimes **@id10tmau5** · 1 upvotes > Somebody's getting canned... > >  ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [America's Driver's License Breach Is a National Security Disaster](https://daily.dev/posts/america-s-driver-s-license-breach-is-a-national-security-disaster-mxhj7woat) · Tech Lead Digest · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Another massive data breach exposed millions of driver’s license numbers](https://daily.dev/posts/another-massive-data-breach-exposed-millions-of-driver-s-license-numbers-z6spff7ie) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Texas govt data breach exposes over 3 million driver’s licenses](https://daily.dev/posts/texas-govt-data-breach-exposes-over-3-million-driver-s-licenses-1udrut6hn) · BleepingComputer · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [6.9 million driver’s license numbers stolen from AssuranceAmerica](https://daily.dev/posts/6-9-million-driver-s-license-numbers-stolen-from-assuranceamerica-uwv5oczrn) · Security Boulevard · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#data-breach](https://daily.dev/tags/data-breach), [#identity-verification](https://daily.dev/tags/identity-verification) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/idscan-data-breach-exposed-150-million-driver-s-licenses-including-senior-government-officials-lgnx9pa1f) ```json 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