Florida DMV confirms breach by international hacker group after data leak threat

Florida officials announced that the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles suffered a cyberattack involving an international criminal group. The attackers gained access through the credentials of a single Plant City Police Department employee whose login information was kept on a personal electronic device. State officials said the breach was swiftly mitigated and no further unauthorized access is occurring.

Earlier, the hacker collective ShinyHunters posted on its dark-web site that the Florida DMV was its latest target and gave a deadline for a payment to prevent data release. After the DMV’s public statement, ShinyHunters removed the references, a move often interpreted as the start of negotiations. Ian Gray of Flashpoint noted this pattern as a possible sign that the state is discussing a ransom. The DMV has not disclosed additional specifics about the compromised data.