A digital scan of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s driver’s license is among the more than 170 million ID documents that can now be purchased on the dark web. The scans, as cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs reported Tuesday, are linked to a new identity theft service known as Nexus. The service was discovered a day earlier when it was announced on a Russian cybercrime forum. Download the Straight Arrow app today to get the stories that matter free of manipulation, bias or agenda.™ Point your phone camera here Nexus claims to offer more than 153 million scans of U.S. and Canadian driver’s licenses, 10 million additional ID cards, three million travel documents and international IDs, as well as approximately 579,000 medical IDs. Krebs, who reported gaining access to the service, says an unknown number of other forms of identification are also found on the site. They include marijuana dispensary cards; “CDL,” presumably a reference to commercial driver’s licenses; and CAC cards, which Krebs said may be common access cards used by government employees to access government buildings and secure spaces. The people behind Nexus (not to be confused with LexisNexis, the American data analytics company) claim that the documents are obtained from an ongoing breach at a major identity verification company. “We have been continuously leaking new data for over a year into our private database,” the group behind Nexus said in a post on the cybercrime forum. “Records are available to preview prior to purchase with pertinent information redacted. Customer photos are displayed if available.” Number of Stolen IDs Grows With the number of IDs available on Nexus increasing by nearly 400,000 in just 24 hours, Krebs said he believes Nexus’ claim that the breach continues. According to Krebs’ analysis of the data, the source of the identifications appears to be IDscan.net, a Mexican company based in New Orleans in the United States. In a statement Tuesday, the company said it was investigating the matter. “At this time I cannot 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. The breach material could be used for a wide range of crimes, including identity theft, as well as to track down victims of domestic abuse and those placed under witness protection. With advances in publicly available facial recognition technology, tracking down documents linked to high-profile people could become easy. The presence of documents linked to a high-ranking government official like Hegseth also carries national security implications. The FBI began an investigation into Nexus on Tuesday, Krebs reported. But that research can be difficult. After Krebs published his research, the Nexus dark website disappeared, at least temporarily. Now it shows a message: “This service is no longer available.” Complete your reading
