The breach surfaced publicly when a dark web marketplace called Nexus began advertising more than 153 million driver's license scans from the United States and Canada, along with more than 10 million other identity cards and roughly 3 million travel documents. Independent security journalist Brian Krebs first reported the listing after the seller offered Krebs's own driver's license as a free sample to show the data was genuine.
FBI investigates as Canada monitors
The FBI confirmed it is investigating the reported breach. In Canada, where roughly 1.1 million of the exposed records are tied to driver's licenses, the RCMP said it is monitoring reports. The exposed information includes full names and driver's license or other government-issued identification numbers.
Company offers credit monitoring
IDScan.net said in a security notice dated September 4 that it is notifying potentially affected individuals "in an abundance of caution" and offering complimentary credit monitoring and identity-repair services.
The incident underlines the risks of concentrating vast collections of identity documents with third-party verification vendors that businesses rely on to check customer identities.
