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A searchable database containing personal and professional details for more than 41,000 Department of Homeland Security employees and contractors appeared online Wednesday, exposing information that had been shielded to protect officers engaged in immigration enforcement and other sensitive duties. The material includes names, work addresses, phone numbers, email accounts and job titles along with indications of internal system access and group memberships, according to a review by WIRED that examined the archive. The Washington Post verified portions of the data with current and former officials while TechCrunch traced the breach to an Okta single sign-on system used across the department.
The activist collective known as Department of Peace claimed responsibility for obtaining the records and shared them with cybersecurity researcher maia arson crimew as well as the transparency nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets, which published the collection under the name Icepick, The Verge reported. The group described the action as a response to immigration enforcement practices and stated that the leak was not intended as a complete directory of every DHS worker. “They have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs,” the Department of Peace hacker told TechCrunch.
More than 21,000 records relate to Customs and Border Protection personnel while roughly 10,000 concern Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff including those in its Homeland Security Investigations unit, a breakdown published by Distributed Denial of Secrets shows. TechCrunch reported that the dataset amounts to about one-fifth of the department’s workforce of roughly 220,000 people. Another 6,200 entries cover US Citizenship and Immigration Services employees and nearly 1,000 pertain to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency with more than half listed as contractors, according to an analysis by WIRED.
Beyond contact information the files reveal dozens of previously unknown operation names, assigned agents and references to specialized tools including software from Palantir and Cellbrite as well as facial recognition applications, Nextgov/FCW determined after reviewing the dataset. Groups tied to wiretap programs, undercover certifications and even internal mental health resources appear in the material. The leak also lists locations of ICE and CBP facilities across multiple states.
This marks the third government agency to face such an exposure in recent weeks following a breach involving FBI employee and applicant data, according to The Verge. The Department of Homeland Security said it was aware of a potential breach and was working to address the situation while emphasizing that it takes all security threats against its employees and officers seriously. A former ICE official told The Washington Post that an intelligence bulletin had been issued although some agents contacted via the leaked numbers said they had not yet received notification.
Former acting ICE director John Sandweg called the exposure a nightmare scenario in remarks to The Washington Post. The breach comes as immigration agents frequently operate without visible identification to maintain operational security during enforcement actions. Analysis by Fox News independently confirmed that the records include names of several undercover ICE agents working in different parts of the country.
