DHS Data Breach Exposes Records of 41,000 Staff Members

A hacker identified as Department of Peace stole personal information belonging to more than 41,000 employees of the Department of Homeland Security. The breach exposes names, job titles, phone numbers, email addresses, and office locations for staff across multiple federal agencies.

TechCrunch and Wired reported that the intruder accessed the data through Okta, an identity and access management service used by DHS. Roughly 21,000 of the records belong to Customs and Border Protection officers. Nearly 7,000 records are tied to Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel. The dataset also includes files for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Homeland Security Investigations.

The leak matters because DHS has historically kept the identities of CBP and ICE agents private. These officers have conducted anti-immigration raids across the country, and the department has tracked down online critics. The hacker framed the release as a reciprocal action. "They have our information, so it's only fair that we have theirs," the hacker said, according to TechCrunch.

This incident follows a recent FBI data theft that compromised records for employees and job applicants. The DHS data was passed to cybersecurity researcher maia arson crimew. She shared the files with Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit organization now hosting the dataset under the name Icepick.

The leaked records also link specific DHS groups to surveillance tools. These include Mobile Fortify, a facial recognition app, and PenLink, a program that collects and analyzes data from phones and online services. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge.