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Capt. Sarah Miller and Tech. Sgt. Carrol Brewster, discuss options in response to a staged cyber-attack during filming of a scene for an Air Force Reserve Command mission video at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, on June 1, 2019. The video, which is currently in production, will also be filme
Photo: Maj. Christopher Vasquez, USAF | Public domain | Wikimedia Commons

FBI Probes Dark-Web Sale Of Millions Of Stolen ID Documents

The FBI is investigating the theft and sale of scanned driver's licenses and other identity documents tied to a dark-web database called Nexus, authorities said.[1]

Nexus advertised this week that it held roughly 170 million identity documents from people in the United States and Canada, including scans of driver's licenses, travel papers and medical cards.[1] The FBI confirmed in an emailed statement that it was probing the theft and sale of the document scans amid worries they could help criminals make convincing fake IDs.[1]

Nexus's posting on the dark web made raw images available at a large scale and prompted urgent questions about how the files were obtained and how quickly they might be misused.[1]

It was not immediately clear whether the trove came from a single breach or from aggregated leaks, and the FBI declined to provide further details about suspects or the full scope.[1]

  1. New York Times
Cybersecurity Breaches Identity Theft and Fraud
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📌 Key Facts

  • The FBI confirmed in an emailed statement that it is investigating the theft and sale of identity document scans linked to a database called Nexus.
  • The Nexus database advertised this week that it held about 170 million identity documents from people in the United States and Canada.
  • The breach includes digital copies of driver’s licenses, travel documents and medical cards, raising concerns they could be used to create fake IDs.

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