A new dark web platform called Nexus claimed to be selling 153 million driver’s license scans and millions of other identity and medical cards.

According to reports, the collection included more than 153 million driver’s licenses, 10 million ID cards, 3 million travel documents, and 579,000 medical cards, including marijuana dispensary cards.

The trove of driver’s license scans reported by KrebsOnSecurity is a sharp reminder that identity verification is not a harmless box-ticking exercise.

The FBI’s New Orleans field office has opened an investigation into an apparent breach involving identity verification provider IDScan.net. The company said it was investigating.

IDScan.net advertises as follows:

“We provide simple, secure solutions to help dispensaries reduce liability and protect their licenses by validating IDs, including a customer’s age, in a matter of seconds.”

The allegedly exposed records were especially concerning because some included more than a basic photo of an ID. KrebsOnSecurity found records containing front-and-back images, as well as infrared and ultraviolet scans, with timestamps that appeared to align with the holders’ travel or car-rental activity.

That matters because a driver’s license is far more useful to an identity thief than a password. You can reset a password. You cannot easily replace your face, date of birth, address, or license number, particularly when they’re accompanied by high-resolution images of your government-issued ID.

The age-verification problem

Age verification has become a common justification for asking people to upload an ID, take a selfie, or submit both to a third-party identity verification provider.

We have previously warned about the privacy and security trade-offs in age-verification systems, particularly those that require people to submit copies of government-issued ID. Such systems can turn a request to access a website into a decision to share an enduring identity document with a company the user may never have heard of.

In our opinion, that is a disproportionate risk. Once someone uploads an ID, the service or its vendor can potentially link the visit to their identity. If the provider is breached, the consequences can extend well beyond unwanted marketing or an exposed email address.

The reported Nexus dataset illustrates a broader concern: Identity documents are collected in many places that people may not connect with one another. Each individual collection may be presented as routine, but together they create an ever-expanding ecosystem of organizations, contractors, software platforms, cloud services, and privacy policies.

Facial images and ID copies can be reused. Criminals may use them to make scams more convincing, pass weak identity checks, or assemble detailed victim profiles from records obtained from separate breaches. An attacker who knows your name, address, date of birth, email address, and license details has a useful foundation for fraud.

This is why “we only need to verify your age” should not automatically mean “please upload your driver’s license” or another form of ID.

How to stay safe

When an ID check is required to use an online service, ask a basic question: Why does this company need a copy of my identity document, and what happens to it afterward? The scale of the data reportedly offered through Nexus shows why the answer matters.

Consumers cannot always refuse an ID check, particularly where it is legally required or necessary for a regulated service. But you can reduce unnecessary exposure:

  • Ask whether an ID image is stored and, if so, for how long.
  • Check whether the company uses a third-party identity verification provider.
  • Prefer services that offer a privacy-preserving age check rather than requiring a full ID upload.
  • Avoid submitting identity documents to sites you do not trust or did not intend to use.
  • Do not email copies of IDs unless there is no safer alternative and you have independently verified the recipient.
  • Be alert for phishing, account-recovery scams, and fraudulent credit applications if you believe your ID may have been exposed.
  • Consider a credit freeze where available.

Let’s face it, an incognito window can only do so much. 
 
Breaches, dark web trading, credit fraud. Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection monitors for all of it, alerts you fast, and comes with identity theft insurance.