By Basant El-Faramawy
The non-profit transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets said on Wednesday it has released data on more than 40,000 Department of Homeland Security employees, including details about officials working in sensitive fields such as surveillance and human intelligence.
Details of the leak
The data includes names, phone numbers, email addresses, job titles, and email groups for employees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and other DHS component agencies. The information also reveals which agents were assigned to special operations, surveillance, computer forensics, and undercover work.
Source and verification
The group says the data was obtained by an entity calling itself “Department of Peace,” which previously claimed responsibility for hacking DHS and posting contract documents. Distributed Denial of Secrets co-founder Emma Best said a hacktivist known as “maia arson crimew” developed a search tool to allow the public to browse the data. Reuters matched personal information for about six DHS employees to credit bureau records and dark web data, and confirmed phone numbers for three employees directly. Okta, the sign-on service used by DHS, stated it has no evidence its systems were compromised.
