The leak website Distributed Denial of Secrets has published sensitive data covering more than 40,000 employees of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including personnel involved in human intelligence and surveillance.
The DHS said it was “aware of a potential breach and is actively working to address the situation swiftly and effectively”. It added that it was taking steps to protect its staff and would provide further public updates when available, reports CBC.
The disclosure, which Distributed Denial of Secrets, a non-profit data transparency group, said was based on material obtained by an entity calling itself the “Department of Peace”, marks the third major US government data exposure in the past month.
In September, the cybercrime group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for stealing a substantial dataset from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), containing medical records and sensitive employment information of thousands of workers.
Last week, the US War Department faced a class-action lawsuit following a security breach that exposed details of millions of current and former military personnel.
The newly exposed DHS dataset contains employee names, telephone numbers and email addresses from several key agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, as well as other DHS component bodies.
It also includes official job titles and internal email distribution groups, revealing agents assigned to computer forensics, special operations, undercover assignments and surveillance roles.
According to Distributed Denial of Secrets co-founder Emma Best, the hacktivist known as “maia arson crimew” created a search tool that allows the public to browse the leaked database.
Best said the initiative aims to “replace anonymity with accountability”, empower journalists, guide public records requests and strengthen congressional oversight.
The Department of Peace did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, a statement accompanying the published data said DHS employees “have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs”. It added that it hoped the disclosure “can be used to limit further harm by the DHS and supports all efforts in that direction”.
The same entity previously claimed responsibility in March for infiltrating the DHS and publishing documents concerning contracts with external vendors.
Best said the Department of Peace obtained the dataset through the Okta sign-on service used by the DHS, a claim Reuters could not independently corroborate.
Okta rejected the assertion in a statement to Reuters, saying: “Okta is secure, and we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised”.
While Reuters could not independently verify the complete dataset, it authenticated information belonging to six named DHS employees by cross-referencing credit bureau records and breach information hosted on District 4 Labs, a dark web intelligence platform.
Reuters also telephoned three DHS employees directly, confirming their telephone numbers and background details. One employee said it was the first time they had heard of the incident.
Although some of the leaked information matched publicly available details on employees’ LinkedIn profiles, other entries revealed non-public internal organisational charts and previously undisclosed operational programmes.
