Key takeaways:
- The BBC reported that the leaked records cover more than 41,000 DHS personnel, including more than 21,000 CBP employees and nearly 6,600 ICE employees.
- The data includes employee contact details and assignments involving surveillance, special operations and undercover work.
- The group behind the disclosure says it obtained the records through Okta; Okta says it has no evidence its systems or data were compromised.
Details of more than 40,000 U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees, including immigration agents and staff assigned to undercover work, were published online Wednesday in a leak that exposed names, contact information and descriptions of their jobs.
The BBC reported that the data covers more than 41,000 personnel, including more than 21,000 at Customs and Border Protection and nearly 6,600 at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It also includes employees of Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, according to the BBC.
The data was released through Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit data transparency group, alongside a search tool developed by hacker and cybersecurity researcher maia arson crimew. The BBC said the database is called Icepick. Distributed Denial of Secrets said it obtained the information from a group calling itself the Department of Peace.
The records include names, work contact details and job titles. The Guardian reported that they also identify employees assigned to surveillance, computer forensics, special operations and undercover work. According to the BBC, the data names dozens of previously undisclosed operations, some of the personnel involved and technology used in their work, including tools supplied by Cellebrite and Palantir.
Emma Best, a co-founder of Distributed Denial of Secrets, said the searchable data would “replace anonymity with accountability.” The Guardian reported that Best said it could help journalists, guide public records requests and support congressional oversight. In a statement accompanying the data, the Department of Peace said DHS employees “have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs.” The group said it hoped the disclosure could be used to limit harm by the department.
The Department of Peace said it obtained the employee profiles through Okta, a sign-on service used by DHS. That account has not been independently verified. Okta said it was aware of the claims but added: “Okta is secure, and we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised.” DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Guardian reported that Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the entire collection. Reuters matched information about roughly six DHS employees to other records and confirmed details, including phone numbers, by calling three employees. One said they had not previously heard of a breach. Some entries matched public LinkedIn profiles, while others appeared to show nonpublic organizational details or previously undisclosed operations, The Guardian reported.
The disclosure follows other reported breaches of U.S. government data. The Guardian said the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed in September to have taken information about thousands of FBI employees, and that a breach exposing data on millions of current and former military personnel prompted a lawsuit against the Defense Department. The BBC also reported that the Federal Election Commission was taken offline in recent days because of a suspected hacking attempt.
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