40,000 DHS staff records leaked online

More than 40,000 records from United States Department of Homeland Security employees were published online on Wednesday. The data includes names, phone numbers, and email addresses for staff across multiple federal agencies. It also lists job titles and email group affiliations for officials working in sensitive sectors.

The group Distributed Denial of Secrets released the information on its website. The organization stated that the data originated from an entity calling itself the Department of Peace. This entity claimed responsibility for the theft in a statement included with the data dump. The Department of Peace said it hoped the release would help limit further harm caused by the DHS.

Department of Homeland Security officials said they were aware of a potential breach. A statement from the agency noted that it is actively working to address the situation swiftly. The agency added that it is working to ensure employees are properly protected. It promised to update the public when more information becomes available.

The leaked files cover personnel from several key components of the department. These include Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security Investigations. The data also includes employees from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Specific job assignments are visible for agents in special operations, computer forensics, and undercover work.

Emma Best, a co-founder of Distributed Denial of Secrets, provided a statement about the release. She said that a journalist known as maia arson crimew developed a search tool for the dataset. Best claimed the tool would replace anonymity with accountability. She argued it would help journalists guide public records requests and boost congressional oversight.

Maia arson crimew said the tool would provide material for freedom of information act requests for years to come. The Department of Peace did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the specific release. However, its accompanying statement asserted that it is fair for the group to have DHS information since DHS has theirs.

This incident is the third major government data leak to make headlines in the past month. In September, the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That trove included job details and medical information from thousands of bureau employees. Last week, the Defense Department faced a class action lawsuit following a breach that exposed data on millions of military personnel.

Distributed Denial of Secrets stated that the Department of Peace harvested the data from the Okta sign-on service used by DHS. Okta responded to a query by stating that it is secure and has no evidence its data or systems were compromised. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim that Okta was the source of the leak.

Reuters verified the authenticity of some of the data by matching personal information about six named employees. The verification process used credit bureau records and breach data from the dark web intelligence platform District 4 Labs. Reporters also called three DHS employees directly to confirm their phone numbers and other details.

One of the employees called said it was the first time they had heard of a breach. In several cases, the leaked data tracked information already available on the employees' LinkedIn profiles. In other instances, the data revealed nonpublic details about internal organization charts or previously undisclosed programs and operations.