--- title: It sure looks like hackers breached a major ID card... description: A dark web identity theft site called Nexus claimed to offer searchable access to over 150 million stolen driver's licenses and passports from the US and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/it-sure-looks-like-hackers-breached-a-major-id-card-verification-service-zwrey5avr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: It sure looks like hackers breached a major ID card verification service | daily.dev og:description: A dark web identity theft site called Nexus claimed to offer searchable access to over 150 million stolen driver's licenses and passports from the US and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/it-sure-looks-like-hackers-breached-a-major-id-card-verification-service-zwrey5avr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/zWrEy5avR.png og:image:alt: It sure looks like hackers breached a major ID card verification service 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. # It sure looks like hackers breached a major ID card verification service **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A dark web identity theft site called Nexus claimed to offer searchable access to over 150 million stolen driver's licenses and passports from the US and Canada, with about half a million new documents added daily. Security journalist Brian Krebs, working with researcher Zach Edwards, traced the likely source to Louisiana-based identity verification company IDScan, which serves major tech and consumer brands. Krebs confirmed his own license was in the database, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's photo was reportedly listed too. IDScan says it is investigating, and the FBI's New Orleans field office is reportedly probing the breach. Nexus went offline shortly after the report was published. The incident is described as potentially the largest known single breach of identity documents in some time, and comes amid growing government mandates for age verification that require uploading ID documents. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What happened in the IDScan data breach involving Nexus? A dark web site called Nexus claimed to let users search more than 150 million stolen driver's licenses and passports from the US and Canada, adding roughly half a million new documents daily. Investigators traced the likely source to identity verification company IDScan, based in Louisiana. IDScan said it was investigating, and the FBI's New Orleans field office was reportedly involved; Nexus went offline after the breach was reported. _Developers building identity checks into products can follow breach investigations like this one on daily.dev._ ### Why is storing uploaded ID documents for age verification risky? Age-verification laws increasingly require adults to upload driver's licenses or passports to prove their age, and identity verification companies retain these documents for long periods. Security experts and privacy advocates warn this creates large, attractive stores of sensitive data, as demonstrated by the suspected IDScan breach that exposed over 150 million documents including customer photos. _Teams designing compliant age-verification flows can track this debate over data retention on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [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 government data breach allowed hackers to steal 3 million driver’s licenses and passports](https://daily.dev/posts/texas-government-data-breach-allowed-hackers-to-steal-3-million-driver-s-licenses-and-passports-2vopy2txs) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber), [#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/it-sure-looks-like-hackers-breached-a-major-id-card-verification-service-zwrey5avr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"It sure looks like hackers breached a major ID card verification service","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/it-sure-looks-like-hackers-breached-a-major-id-card-verification-service-zwrey5avr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/it-sure-looks-like-hackers-breached-a-major-id-card-verification-service-zwrey5avr"},"datePublished":"2026-09-02T19:37:50.729Z","dateModified":"2026-09-04T14:41:24.637Z","description":"A dark web identity theft site called Nexus claimed to offer searchable access to over 150 million stolen driver's licenses and passports from the US and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7300d60c7185c315f461341399105a26?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7300d60c7185c315f461341399105a26?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCrunch","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCrunch","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/it-sure-looks-like-hackers-breached-a-major-id-card-verification-service-zwrey5avr","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"cyber,data-breach,identity-verification","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCrunch","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"It sure looks like hackers breached a major ID card verification service"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/it-sure-looks-like-hackers-breached-a-major-id-card-verification-service-zwrey5avr#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What happened in the IDScan data breach involving Nexus?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A dark web site called Nexus claimed to let users search more than 150 million stolen driver's licenses and passports from the US and Canada, adding roughly half a million new documents daily. Investigators traced the likely source to identity verification company IDScan, based in Louisiana. IDScan said it was investigating, and the FBI's New Orleans field office was reportedly involved; Nexus went offline after the breach was reported. Developers building identity checks into products can follow breach investigations like this one on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why is storing uploaded ID documents for age verification risky?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Age-verification laws increasingly require adults to upload driver's licenses or passports to prove their age, and identity verification companies retain these documents for long periods. Security experts and privacy advocates warn this creates large, attractive stores of sensitive data, as demonstrated by the suspected IDScan breach that exposed over 150 million documents including customer photos. Teams designing compliant age-verification flows can track this debate over data retention on daily.dev."}}]} ```