Identity verification firm IDScan has acknowledged that hackers accessed customer data stored on its IDScan.net cloud platform, days after reports tied the company to a leaked database of over 153 million driver's license scans being sold on the dark web. The company said it discovered the unauthorized access around September 1 and is still investigating the scope, but confirmed exposed data can include names and government ID numbers.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-09-10
Starting September 9, Australian law requires online game and app storefronts to verify that buyers are over 18. Steam is meeting this requirement by asking users to link a bank card rather than submit government ID or biometric data, mirroring the approach it already uses in the UK. Credit cards work reliably since Australian issuers only give them to adults, but debit cards—often held by minors—only pass verification under narrower conditions tied to specific bank and network flags.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-10
Researchers report that large language models can develop novel social biases not present in their original training data when placed in adaptive, exploration-based learning settings. These biases emerged as the models optimized for rewards through repeated interactions, effectively creating stereotype-like associations on their own.
openreview.net
· 2026-09-08
Microsoft is introducing new APIs in Windows 11 that let third-party apps check whether a user falls into a child, teen, or adult age category, without revealing the person's actual birthdate. Developers can use this signal to tailor content, features, or restrictions based on age group rather than requesting precise personal data.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-09-08
Websites are relying less on the traditional click-the-traffic-lights style verification tests, but CAPTCHAs have not disappeared. Instead, both sides of the human-verification arms race are evolving as AI systems become more capable of solving these challenges while also being deployed to create harder ones.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-08
A dark web identity-theft service is selling scans of more than 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver's licenses, apparently sourced from a Louisiana-based identity verification company that supplies age- and ID-checking services. Investigator Brian Krebs found the site was still adding hundreds of thousands of new records daily, including 400,000 added the day the breach was exposed, before the service was finally taken offline.
techdirt.com
· 2026-09-04
Restaurants are increasingly using AI image generators to create menu illustrations, and experts say these images share a distinctly artificial sameness—symmetrical, glossy, and subtly wrong. Reality Defender's CTO Alex Lisle explains that because diffusion and language models are trained on massive shared datasets, they converge on a narrow set of 'pleasing' visual patterns rather than genuine food photography.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-04
Meta has settled a child safety lawsuit brought by more than 40 states plus DC and several territories, agreeing to pay up to $17 billion over a decade. As part of the deal it will roll out teen-specific product changes, including a default two-hour daily usage cap, overnight app blocks from midnight to 6 a.m., muted notifications during school hours, hidden likes, disabled cosmetic filters, and an option for a non-algorithmic feed.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-03
A dark web marketplace called Nexus was offering digital scans of over 153 million driver's licenses from the US and Canada, along with 10 million ID cards, 3 million travel documents and half a million medical cards, affecting roughly 170 million people. Journalist Brian Krebs traced the data to a Louisiana-based ID verification firm and found the license of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth among the leaked files. The FBI has opened an inquiry, and the Nexus service disappeared from the dark web the same day Krebs published his findings.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-03
A dark-web marketplace called Nexus advertised more than 153 million US and Canadian driver's license images, along with millions of ID cards, travel documents and medical cards, before going offline after Krebs on Security exposed it. The listings included not just standard front-and-back scans but infrared and ultraviolet images normally used by businesses to verify document authenticity. The FBI's New Orleans office is reportedly investigating a possible breach at Louisiana-based identity-verification firm IDScan.net, which Nexus claimed as its data source.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-03
A trove of roughly 153 million scanned driver's licenses, reportedly stolen from an identity verification company, has surfaced for sale online. The leak underscores how centralized repositories of scanned IDs, built to confirm users' identities, have themselves become prime targets for hackers.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-09-02
A dark web marketplace called Nexus emerged this week claiming to sell searchable access to over 150 million U.S. and Canadian driver's licenses and passports, with roughly half a million new records added daily. Security journalist Brian Krebs and researcher Zach Edwards traced the likely source to IDScan, a Louisiana-based identity verification firm used by major consumer brands to check tens of millions of IDs monthly. Both researchers confirmed their own personal documents appeared in the database, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's photo was also reportedly found among the listings.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-02
GoKawiil