Hacktivists leak work details of about 41,000 Homeland Security employees, including undercover ICE units
WIRED's analysis of the leaked records shows how much a staff directory reveals about an agency's structure and programs.
A group calling itself the Department of Peace says it took personnel records from the Department of Homeland Security's login system and handed them to the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), which published them on Wednesday, October 28, as "Icepick." According to WIRED and NPR, the data covers more than 41,000 employees and contractors: names, work email addresses, phone numbers and office locations, plus supervisors and the internal permission groups each person belongs to.
WIRED counts more than 21,000 records from Customs and Border Protection and about 10,000 from ICE, including staff in groups that court filings tie to certified undercover operations and wiretap programs. DDoSecrets says the data came from DHS's Okta system; Okta told WIRED it has no evidence its systems were compromised. DHS said it was "aware of a potential breach" and working to protect employees.
The release's backers call it an accountability tool; a Recorded Future analyst told WIRED it could help adversaries target staff. By Thursday, Bluesky was blocking links to the dataset and a searchable site was offline after a takedown notice filed for DHS, TechCrunch reports.
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Distributed Denial of Secrets
After exploring Massive Leak Exposes 41,000 Homeland Security Workers—Including Undercover ICE Agents, the group that published the files is profiled in Distributed Denial of Secrets.
DDoSecrets is a leak-publishing site founded in 2018; it says it has published over 100 million files from 59 countries.
Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min
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Doxing
After exploring Massive Leak Exposes 41,000 Homeland Security Workers—Including Undercover ICE Agents, the term at the center of the argument is explained in Doxing.
Defines doxing as publishing someone's personally identifiable information without consent, often to harass, and notes how the term's meaning has been used.
Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min
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