Florida's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) has started notifying victims of a data breach first discovered in September, but some affected people may never receive an alert. The department said a malicious actor used compromised credentials from a local law enforcement employee to access driver's license and motor vehicle records on September 4, 2026, including document images and other personal information. It said there is no evidence the data has been misused yet, and it is offering affected individuals one year of credit monitoring from Sontiq, Inc.
A key gap is that the state acknowledges it may not have current contact information for many former Florida residents whose data remained in its systems. Those individuals can email FLHSMV to confirm whether their records were involved. Meanwhile, current and former residents are advised to monitor financial accounts and review credit reports for suspicious activity. Some Floridians on a subreddit said they placed fraud alerts or security freezes with credit bureaus, and several complained they only received notification this week—more than a month after the breach.
Although FLHSMV's public notice did not name the attackers, a separate report said the cybercriminal group ShinyHunters claimed to have hacked the Florida DMV and posted what it said was a driver's license belonging to a former Florida resident. The group later edited its posts to remove Florida mentions, which a threat intelligence analyst said could suggest negotiations to prevent a data leak. FLHSMV said it promptly blocked unauthorized access, reset credentials, and is still investigating. This breach appears unrelated to a separate large-scale leak of US driver's license data involving IDscan.net, but both incidents underscore how easily personal information can be exposed.