Two accounts of how someone got into Florida’s driver database now sit side by side, and they do not match.
The extortion group ShinyHunters says a password-reset flaw let it take over several accounts, which it claims belonged to DMV staff and an FBI agent. It says it then stepped through record IDs from September 3 and downloaded more than 200,000 driver records. The state’s account is smaller and duller. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, or FLHSMV, said that on September 4 it learned of a breach, that it was quickly mitigated, and that no further breach has occurred or is ongoing.
The technical reality
The agency traced the intrusion to the credentials of a single Plant City Police Department user. Those credentials had been improperly stored on the employee’s personal device, and a criminal actor took advantage of them. The agency referred to the attacker only as an “international cybercriminal organization” and did not name ShinyHunters.
FLHSMV has notified the Florida Attorney General’s office as state law requires, and is working with the Florida Digital Service and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The criminal investigation continues, and more information will follow “at an appropriate time.”
The state has not said how many records were taken, and it has neither confirmed nor disputed the 200,000 figure. It has not backed the password-reset story either. For now that version rests with the attackers, who have every reason to sound credible.
What sits inside DAVID
DAVID, the Driver and Vehicle Information Database, is not a public portal. Police, courts and other approved government users query it, and FLHSMV’s Bureau of Records manages access and audits the users. Government descriptions of the system say authorised users can reach driver information, photographs, signatures, vehicle history and insurance records.
That depth is the problem. As ShinyHunters tells it, the method was mundane: log in, then walk through identifiers one at a time. It claims no malware and no zero-day. Florida’s own findings point the same direction. The weak spot was a login in the wrong place, not the database itself, and once an attacker holds a valid account, a system like this behaves exactly as designed.
The Epstein sample
As proof, ShinyHunters posted a screenshot of a DAVID record for Jeffrey Epstein, according to BleepingComputer. It reportedly showed an address, Social Security number, date of birth, driver’s licence information and registered vehicle details. FLHSMV has not confirmed the Epstein sample, and no independent check of it has been made public.
The group also told BleepingComputer it expects more DMV breaches to surface, and a source told that outlet the attackers were going after motor vehicle platforms in other states through social engineering. Florida has not said its breach is connected to any other state.
What Florida still has not released is a record count, or any word on whose records were exposed.
Sources
- DMV breach confirmed as hackers claim 200,000 records stolen
- Florida DMV Breach: Officer's Device Root Cause [2026]
