Hackers publish thousands of drivers’ data after breaching Florida motor vehicle database

The ShinyHunters hacking group has published hundreds of thousands of files from a Florida state database of vehicles and driver information. The hackers said they published the stolen data on its leak site “because the victim did not pay a ransom or cooperate and comply” with the hackers’ demands.

The hackers said they breached the database, known as DAVID, earlier in September and posted as evidence a screenshot purporting to be a record associated with the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who had a residence in the state.

The Florida motor vehicle agency, FLHSMV, confirmed a data breach in a statement last week and after the hackers obtained a police officer’s credentials that were stored on a personal device. An agency spokesperson did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment on Wednesday about the published data.

According to a copy of the stolen data, which TechCrunch has seen, the hackers stole hundreds of thousands of certificates of vehicle ownership records, which contained vehicle owners’ names and addresses of buyers and sellers. The records also contained vehicle identification numbers.

A smaller number of files included Social Security numbers and other government-issued documents, such as non-U.S. passports and immigration papers but did not appear to contain driver’s licenses or people’s photos.

The driver’s license database breach comes in the same month that a monster hack at identity verification company IDScan allowed hackers to steal over 150 million images of driver’s licenses.