Ex-WA resident says she was victim of DOL flaw

Name: WA DOL data breach claims raise fears of identity theft
Uploaded: 2026-03-10T17:53:08-07:00
Description: The Washington State Department of Licensing is disputing claims that its system left personal information exposed for more than 6 years. One woman is sharing her story of identity theft, who says what's alleged sounds awfully familiar.

WA DOL data breach claims raise fears of identity theft

The Washington State Department of Licensing is disputing claims that its system left personal information exposed for more than 6 years. One woman is sharing her story of identity theft, who says what's alleged sounds awfully familiar.

SEATTLE - Last week we told you about a tort claim alleging the Washington State Department of Licensing failed to fix a system flaw leaving personal information exposed for more than six years.

The DOL disputes the claim.

We talked with a woman who said what's alleged sounds awfully familiar.

WA resident details alleged DOL breach

What they're saying:

Bess Byers now lives in Idaho and said she found that, not only was her identity stolen, but her voter address information was changed, too.

"I was just appalled that a state licensing agency could have such buffoonery, like, who is running the show that you guys would allow this?" Byers said.

She said in the spring of 2020, she lived in Washington state and found her identity stolen and her mail-in ballots missing.

"The 2020 election came and, again, I never received my mail-in ballot, so I again, went and was like, 'What is going on?' and they said, 'Oh, your information seems to have been changed again'," she said. "I was like, how is this happening? It was a different address this time, somewhere I had never lived."

Byers heard about the tort claim alleging the DOL left a backdoor open in its License Express Service from 2018 to 2025.

Attorney Joel Ard said criminals could change your information and order new IDs anywhere.

"People who have retired and moved away, all sorts of people who had Washington driver's licenses and said, 'Hey. You know? That happened to me'," Ard told FOX 13 News last week.

WA DOL says ‘no evidence’ of data breach

The other side:

The DOL disputes widespread fraud and said it found no evidence of a data breach.

It responded to our inquiries sharing more insight into its systems and security measures:

"DOL has teams that review system transactions for irregularities and suspicious activity to identify potential fraud. The fraud team flags and investigates suspicious attempts to access customer records. They contact affected individuals whenever they detect bad actors using stolen information, such as data from mail theft or previous, unrelated data leaks, to compromise an account. Customers concerned about their DOL data can set up an account with License Express to review their address and other personal information for accuracy."

We also contacted the DOL about Byers' story and are told the inquiry has been forwarded to the appropriate team to look into it further.

The backstory:

A frustrated Byers said she found a License Express account was created without her knowledge.

"The fact that there was already an account created when I tried to create my account, tells me that somebody had used this loophole to steal my identity and get an ID sent to them," she said.

She said she now pays for credit monitoring and recommends everyone check to see if their License Express information is correct or if they have an account at all.

"I never wanted to leave Washington. I was born and raised there and, sadly, the politics are driving out people like me, small business owners," she said.

What's next:

FOX 13 News also contacted the Washington Secretary of State's Office regarding Byers' story.

The SOS told us it does not have a record of any correspondence with Byers. In a statement, the SOS said:

"If the Office of the Secretary of State is contacted by a voter alleging that their voter registration is incorrect after an update to their registration through the DOL, our office would investigate that with the DOL.

Anyone who learns that their information was updated without their permission through the Department of Licensing should contact the DOL, who will then contact OSOS if they determine that a driver's voter information was impacted.

Every mail-in ballot that is returned goes through a signature verification process before votes are accepted and counted. When a ballot is returned with a mismatched signature, voters are contacted directly to resolve the discrepancy. The Office of the Secretary of State also cross-references voter information with other states to ensure that if a voter moves their information is removed from Washington's voter rolls."