Hacker Steals Records of More Than 41,000 Homeland Security Employees

A hacker has stolen personal information on more than 41,000 employees of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to reports from TechCrunch and Wired. The exposed data covers names, job titles, phone numbers, email addresses and office locations.

TechCrunch reported that the intruder, who goes by the name "Department of Peace," got in through Okta, an identity and access management service that DHS uses. About 21,000 of the records relate to employees of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and nearly 7,000 belong to staff at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The stolen material also includes records from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The breach is notable because DHS has tried to keep the identities of CBP and ICE agents hidden. Those agents have carried out anti-immigration raids across the country, and the department has also tracked down online critics. The hacker framed the leak as a matter of fairness. "They have our information, so it's only fair that we have theirs," the hacker said, according to TechCrunch.

The incident follows closely on another high-profile intrusion. Only weeks earlier, hackers stole data from the FBI covering its employees and job applicants.

The DHS data was reportedly passed to cybersecurity researcher maia arson crimew, who shared it with Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets). The nonprofit organization is now hosting the leaked dataset, which is known as "Icepick."

According to the reports, the leak also contains information tying certain DHS groups to tools that can be used for surveillance. Among them are Mobile Fortify, a facial recognition app, and PenLink, which can collect and analyze data from phones and online services.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge.