DHS tells BBC it is addressing possible personnel data breach

Leaked files name dozens of agency operations, including undercover missions

DHS told the BBC it was aware of a possible data breach and was actively working to address the situation swiftly and effectively. “We take all security threats against our employees and officers seriously and will work to ensure all are properly protected. We will update the public when more information is available,” a spokesperson said.

The response followed the posting online of personnel records of more than 41,000 Department of Homeland Security employees, United Press International reported. Wednesday’s leak, uploaded to a database called Icepick, contained work addresses, phone numbers and job descriptions of staff at the agency, mostly agents at Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest and third-largest DHS agencies.

The tranche included the details of 21,000 CBP staff and 6,600 ICE workers, as well as personnel from Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The data also contained the names of dozens of the agency’s operations, including undercover missions, which agents were in charge or worked on them, and the type and provider of tech utilized, with Cellbrite and Palantir mentioned by name.

A group called the Department of Peace claimed it was behind the theft, passing the data to the nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets, which posted it online, and also sharing it with U.S. journalist Ryan Ottignon and Swiss hacker maia arson crimew, who built a searchable database. “On July 17th, [Secretary of Homeland Security] Markwayne Mullin said he was ‘turning up the heat.’ This is what happens to ICE when you do that,” the Department of Peace said in a statement.

In a separate note included in the data dump, Distributed Denial of Secrets said DHS “have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs,” adding that its wish was that the records “can be used to limit further harm by the DHS and supports all efforts in that direction.”

The hack was the third similar incident targeting a U.S. government agency in the past few weeks. A suspected attempt Monday to hack into the Federal Election Commission forced the agency to shutter its website, and details of thousands of FBI agents were stolen Sept. 22 by a hacking group named ShinyHunters.

The attack on the FEC targeted its electronic filing system, which candidate and political committees use to disclose contributions, loans and spending in the critical 20-day window in the run-up to the Nov. 3 midterms, bringing campaign finance disclosures to a standstill and making it impossible to follow the money trail.