Leak website releases data on tens of thousands of DHS employees

WASHINGTON: The leak website Distributed Denial of Secrets said on Wednesday it had 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.

DHS did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment.

The disclosure — which the non-profit data transparency group said drew on information obtained by an entity calling itself "Department of Peace" — is the third major government data leak to make headlines in the past month.

In September, the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen a massive trove of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including sensitive job details and medical information from thousands of bureau employees.

Last week, the Defence Department was hit with a class action lawsuit following a breach that exposed data on millions of current and former military personnel.

The DHS data includes names, phone numbers and email addresses of 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 data also included job titles and email groups, which, among other details, showed which agents were assigned to special operations, surveillance, computer forensics and undercover work.

In a statement, Distributed Denial of Secrets co-founder Emma Best said the hacktivist known as "maia arson crimew" had developed a search tool that would allow the public to browse the data.

Best said the tool would "replace anonymity with accountability" and empower journalists, guide public records requests and boost congressional oversight.

The Department of Peace did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, in a statement included with the data, it said DHS employees "have our information, so it's only fair that we have theirs" and that it hoped the data "can be used to limit further harm by the DHS and supports all efforts in that direction".

The Department of Peace claimed responsibility in March for hacking DHS and posting documents related to contracts with outside vendors.

Best's statement said the Department of Peace had harvested the data from the Okta sign-on service used by DHS.

Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim. Okta said in response to a Reuters query: "Okta is secure, and we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised."

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the entire data trove but was able to match personal information about six DHS employees named in the leak with credit bureau records and breach data carried by the dark web intelligence platform District 4 Labs.

Reuters called three DHS employees directly and was able to confirm their phone numbers and other details. One said it was the first they had heard of a breach.

In several cases, the data matched information available on DHS employees' LinkedIn profiles. In others, however, it revealed non-public details about internal DHS organisation charts or previously undisclosed programmes or operations.