In a disturbing find, a hacker has been spotted trying to sell access to over 153 million driver’s licenses from the US and Canada, including the IDs for US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and an FBI assistant director.
The hacker created a site called Nexus to offer the IDs, according to cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs, who learned about the sales after the hacker offered Krebs’ Virginia driver’s license as a free sample. The hacker also offered Hegseth’s driver’s license for $100.
“A quick look around Nexus finds they are likely not exaggerating about that 153 million number: Running a blank search in Nexus (with no search parameters entered) returns approximately 11.5 million pages of results, with roughly 15 results displayed per page,” Krebs wrote.
The hacker is advertising Nexus in the Russian-language hacking forum Exploit, writing, “We have been continuously exfiltrating new data for over a year into our private database.”
The big question is how the IDs were stolen. Krebs suspects the hacker breached New Orleans-based identity provider IDScan.net, which counts FedEx, rental car company Hertz, video game retailer GameStop, and casino operator Caesars Entertainment among its clients. A cybersecurity researcher named Zach Edwards also found his driver’s license on Nexus and noted that his ID was recently scanned while visiting a marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas operated by Planet 13, which has a partnership with IDScan.
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If real, then the illegal sales could be one of the worst breaches in recent history, exposing millions of Americans to identity theft-related schemes. IDScan and the FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But Krebs says both are already investigating. He adds that the mysterious Nexus website has since vanished from the dark web following his report, although it could always reappear through a new domain.
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Michael Kan
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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