Details of thousands of US immigration agents leaked in major hack
Details of more than 41,000 personnel working for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including thousands involved in immigration enforcement, have been leaked to the public.
A major hack has exposed the personal information of over 41,000 US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel, including those involved in immigration enforcement. The leaked data includes names, work addresses, phone numbers, and descriptions of the work each agent does for their respective agency. This breach marks the third time in recent weeks that a government agency has been targeted by leaks or hacks.
The hacker group behind the attack, the Department of Peace, released the information in a database named Icepick and shared it through a website hosted by Distributed Denial of Secrets. The majority of the agents included in the leak work for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), accounting for more than 21,000 individuals. Nearly 6,600 agents work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Other records show agents from Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service, and even the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The leaked information also includes dozens of previously unknown operation names and the agents leading and working on those operations. The hacker group claims that their goal was not to create a directory of every DHS agent, but rather to replace anonymity with accountability.
They argue that the leak exposes officials responsible for overseeing covert and undercover operations, as well as personnel involved in DHS's rendition and deportation programs. The Department of Peace attributes the hack to actions by ICE agents, stating that "on July 17th, Markwayne Mullin said he was ‘turning up the heat’. This is what happens to ICE when you do that."
Mullin, who became Secretary of Homeland Security in March, is now facing consequences for his actions. The Department of Peace accessed the DHS agent profiles through a single sign-on service called Okta, a popular online security tool used by organizations to ensure that only authorized individuals can access internal platforms.
Okta denies that their data or systems were compromised, stating that they are secure and have no evidence of any breach.
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