A hacker stole a large amount of personal information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The breach exposes the names, job titles, phone numbers, email addresses and office locations of more than 41,000 employees, including those at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), according to TechCrunch and cabling. The data also linked agencies to specific surveillance tools.
As reported by TechCrunchA hacker known as “Department of Peace” gained access to the data through Okta, an identity and access management service used by DHS. About 21,000 records belong to CBP employees and nearly 7,000 belong to ICE personnel. The data also includes records from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The leaked DHS information was allegedly given to cybersecurity researcher Maia Arson Crimew, who shared it with Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), a nonprofit organization that now hosts the leaked “Icepick” data set. The leak also reportedly includes information about DHS groups that have access to tools that can be used for surveillance, such as the facial recognition app Mobile Fortify and PenLink, which can collect and analyze data from phones and online services.
DHS did not immediately respond to The edgeRequest for comments.
