Hacker exposes personal and work details of 40,000 US security staff
Developing story first seen 6 hours ago
The newly added coverage reports that a hacker published records on more than 40,000 US Department of Homeland Security employees after a breach earlier this year. The leak includes staff from border and immigration agencies, cybersecurity teams and senior officials, exposing a partial picture of the department’s workforce and operations.
The records reportedly came from an Okta sign-in system and include names, job titles, work contact details, office locations and IT access information. About 21,000 entries relate to Customs and Border Protection, around 10,000 to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its investigations unit, and just under 1,000 to CISA. Timestamps suggest the data was taken around mid-August; the total is about one-fifth of the department’s 220,000 staff, and a sample was verified against an offline database copy.
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In short
- More than 40,000 Homeland Security employee records were published online.
- The dataset includes staff from CBP, ICE and CISA.
- Records appear to have been taken around mid-August.
How this story developed
- 4 hours ago The latest account reiterates the scale and contents of the leak, adding that a sample was checked against an offline database copy and that the records amount to roughly one-fifth of the department’s workforce.
- 4 hours ago A leak revealed records on more than 40,000 US Department of Homeland Security employees, reportedly taken from an Okta sign-in system and exposing staff details across border, immigration and cyber-security agencies.
Full account
A hacker using the name Department of Peace has published records relating to more than 40,000 people working for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to reports by TechCrunch and The Verge. The material includes names, job titles, work email addresses, phone numbers and office locations. It is described as information from an earlier, previously undisclosed breach of a DHS Okta sign-in system, which employees and contractors use to access the department’s network.
The records span several DHS bodies. TechCrunch reports that about 21,000 relate to Customs and Border Protection staff, while roughly 10,000 are associated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its Homeland Security Investigations unit. The Verge’s account gives a figure of nearly 7,000 for ICE staff. Both reports mention records from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other parts of DHS, including Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The leaked material also appears to include account and access information, such as which internal systems and applications particular users are permitted to use. The Verge highlights records linking agency groups to surveillance products, including Mobile Fortify, a facial-recognition app, and PenLink, which can analyse information from phones and online services. These details could reveal more about staff roles and the tools available to their teams, beyond the contact information exposed.
The hacker’s accompanying message framed the release as retaliation, saying that because the government had people’s information, it was fair for the public to have officials’ information. The reports place the incident amid other recent breaches involving US government personnel records, including a separate FBI data theft. The Verge says the DHS data was passed to cybersecurity researcher maia arson crimew and then to Distributed Denial of Secrets, which hosts a dataset called “Icepick”. Neither source describes a public response from DHS; The Verge says the department had not immediately replied to its request for comment.
Where outlets differ
From the full account, which is AI-written from the sources:
TechCrunch puts the total at more than 40,000 and identifies about 10,000 records linked to ICE and HSI; The Verge reports more than 41,000 overall and nearly 7,000 for ICE, while also listing HSI among the included bodies without giving a separate count.
TechCrunch focuses on the breach’s scope across DHS and the Okta system’s account and access records. The Verge gives more attention to surveillance tools associated with agency groups and the route by which the dataset reached DDoSecrets.
The supplied TechCrunch excerpt is cut off during its account of an earlier DHS-related breach, whereas The Verge describes the leaked dataset’s distribution and reports that DHS had not immediately commented.
Explained simply
The Department of Homeland Security is a US government department responsible for areas including border control, immigration enforcement and protection against cyber attacks. Its agencies include Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Okta provides systems that let staff sign in to workplace services. Information linked to staff can include contact details and job roles, while access records may reveal something about the systems they use. Such information can raise privacy and security concerns for employees and their department.
Coverage · 2 sources
Read the full article at the source →
Originally published by TechCrunch as “Hacker stole personnel data about thousands of Homeland Security employees, including CBP and ICE agents”.