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Identity Verification Is Broken. The 153 Million Driver’s Licenses Now for Sale Are Proof
Gizmodo • • business
Key Points:
- A dark web service named Nexus is selling over 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver’s license scans, along with millions of other IDs, prompting an FBI investigation into the data breach's origin.
- KrebsOnSecurity traced the data to IDScan.net, a New Orleans-based identity verification company used by major brands, though the company has not confirmed the breach source and is still investigating.
- The breach highlights systemic risks in the identity verification economy, where widespread data collection by third-party vendors creates large, vulnerable repositories of sensitive personal information.
- Experts advocate for data minimization and technical solutions like zero-knowledge proofs to verify identity without exposing full personal details, but regulatory and compliance inertia hampers adoption.
- This incident underscores ongoing challenges as identity verification becomes more embedded in daily life, with past large-scale breaches illustrating the persistent threat to consumer privacy and security.
