A leak published Wednesday exposes names, phone numbers and email addresses for more than 41,000 Department of Homeland Security employees and contractors, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents flagged as working undercover.
The transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets released the archive, which it calls “Icepick,” and said it came from a group calling itself the Department of Peace, WIRED reported. The records were last updated Aug. 19.
In a note with the files, the hackers wrote, “They have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs.” Hacktivist maia arson crimew built a public search tool for the data.
DDoSecrets said the data was taken from the Okta sign-on service DHS uses. Okta denied any breach. “Okta is secure, and we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised,” the company said, according to Reuters.
Reuters said it could not verify the entire trove but matched details for six employees against credit bureau and breach records and confirmed phone numbers with three DHS workers. One said it was the first they’d heard of a breach.
Undercover and Surveillance Programs Named
Customs and Border Protection staff make up more than half the records, and ICE accounts for about 10,000. At Homeland Security Investigations, 39 employees belong to groups labeled “CUC,” which court filings say stands for certified undercover operation.
Other permission groups reference a wiretap program, a communications intercept center and surveillance tools including Palantir’s Falcon platform. Most records name a supervisor, which could let anyone rebuild reporting lines across the department.
“If authentic and current, this is an extraordinarily valuable intelligence resource for those seeking to penetrate DHS,” said Alexander Leslie of the threat intelligence company Recorded Future, warning adversaries could use it to target personnel or compromise investigations.
The leak also lists senior officials, including former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Philip Hegseth, a senior adviser and younger brother of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. About 35 records identify National Guard members.
DDoSecrets co-founder Emma Best said the tool would “replace anonymity with accountability.” The Department of Peace previously claimed it hacked DHS in March and posted vendor contract documents, NBC News reported.
The administration has moved to hide DHS employees’ names and faces and has prosecuted people for posting information about individual ICE officers. In June, 15 Minnesota residents were charged under stalking and threat laws.
DHS did not respond to requests for comment. The leak follows a September breach in which the group ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen data on FBI employees, and a recent breach of military personnel records, TechCrunch noted.
Law enforcement has arrested several suspects in the FBI case. Federal officials have not said publicly whether they are investigating the DHS leak.
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