The data leak affects more than 41,000 US Homeland Security personnel.
Hacktivists released staff contact details and sensitive operational information, while DHS says it is addressing a potential breach.
A Homeland Security leak has exposed records of more than 41,000 personnel, including immigration agents and border officers. The hacktivist group Department of Peace stole the information and shared it for online publication.
The records contain email addresses, telephone numbers and office addresses, alongside sensitive information about undercover and surveillance programmes. Overall, the disclosure covers roughly one-seventh of the US Department of Homeland Security workforce.
About 21,000 records identify people working with US Customs and Border Protection. Another 10,000 concern Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel. Around a third of the ICE records relate to Homeland Security Investigations, its criminal investigative arm.
Homeland Security leak becomes searchable database
The hackers shared the records with transparency nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets and Swiss cybersecurity researcher maia arson crimew. They then used the information to create a searchable online database, which the nonprofit calls Icepick.
Emma Best, the nonprofit’s founder, said the records connect officials overseeing covert and undercover operations with other key personnel. Those personnel also work in DHS rendition and deportation programmes, Best said.
Meanwhile, the suspected route into the records involved Okta, the single sign-on service DHS uses. The service allows users to enter credentials once to access connected systems, cloud services or applications.
However, Okta said it had found no evidence of a compromise affecting its own data or systems.
DHS responds as hackers explain their motive
A Homeland Security spokesperson said the department knew of a potential breach and was working to address it. The spokesperson also said DHS takes threats against employees and officers seriously and would work to protect them.
The Department of Peace linked its action to remarks DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin made on July 17. At a press conference, Mullin spoke about intensifying street operations when asked about accountability for agents who violated use-of-force policy.
That press conference followed the fatal shootings of Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero from Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo from Houston. Neither man was a subject of ICE enforcement activities.
In a note accompanying the records, the hackers argued that possessing officials’ information was fair because authorities held theirs. DHS, meanwhile, said it would update the public when it had more information.
