Hacktivists Leak Personal Records of 41,000 Homeland Security Employees Online

A hacktivist group breached Department of Homeland Security personnel systems on Wednesday, publishing the records of more than 41,000 federal employees and border agents in an online database.

The leaked files include names, office locations, phone numbers and email addresses belonging to staff across several immigration, border protection and cybersecurity agencies.

The disclosure represents about a fifth of the department's workforce of 220,000 people, exposing personnel who carry out federal deportation operations and surveillance programs.

Emma Best, a co-founder of the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets, said the release aimed to replace "anonymity with accountability."

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the agency was "aware of a potential breach and is actively working to address the situation swiftly and effectively."

The hacktivist collective calling itself Department of Peace took credit for the intrusion, saying it obtained the files through an identity and access management service used by the department.

In an online statement, a spokesperson for the hacking group cited comments by Senator Markwayne Mullin, saying: "On July 17th, Markwayne Mullin said he was 'turning up the heat.' This is what happens to ICE when you do that."

The group shared the files with the Swiss researcher maia arson crimew and Ryan Ottignon, an American journalist, who built a searchable website named Icepick.

"We need oversight for useful government, if it exists at all. So this is just one step in that oversight process," Ottignon said to NPR.

NPR reported that researchers expect the data to assist public records requests, which frequently fail when agencies withhold specific employee names and email addresses.

More than 21,000 of the compromised records belong to Customs and Border Protection personnel, while the news reports gave varying totals for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Verge reported nearly 7,000 records belonged to ICE staff, while the Times of India counted nearly 6,600 and NPR reported 10,000 across ICE and Homeland Security Investigations.

According to The Verge, the leaked data also connected specific Homeland Security offices to surveillance tools, including the Mobile Fortify facial recognition program and phone data software from PenLink.

Other records in the leak list staff from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Federal Protective Service.

The breach follows a separate cyberattack weeks earlier that compromised employee and applicant data at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Federal officials said they are taking steps to safeguard staff, but the agency has not detailed how many undercover operatives were exposed or how it will secure its login systems.