DHS Exposes 40,000 Employees in Third Major Leak This Month

Distributed Denial of Secrets released personal data for more than 40,000 Department of Homeland Security employees on Wednesday. The non-profit group says the information comes from an entity calling itself the Department of Peace. The dataset includes names, phone numbers, and email addresses for staff across multiple DHS component agencies.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are among the units affected. The records also list job titles and email groups. These details reveal which agents work in special operations, surveillance, computer forensics, and undercover roles.

Emma Best, co-founder of Distributed Denial of Secrets, said a hacktivist known as maia arson crimew built a search tool for the data. Best stated that the tool aims to replace anonymity with accountability. She said the release will help journalists, guide public records requests, and boost congressional oversight.

The Department of Peace said in a statement that DHS employees have their information, so it is fair that the public has theirs. The group hopes the data can limit further harm by the agency. The Department of Peace claimed responsibility for hacking DHS in March to post vendor contract documents.

Best said the Department of Peace harvested the data from the Okta sign-on service used by DHS. Okta told Reuters that the company is secure and has no evidence its data or systems were compromised. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim that the theft originated from Okta.

DHS said in a statement that it is aware of a potential breach and is actively working to address the situation swiftly and effectively. The agency said it is working to ensure employees are properly protected. It promised to update the public when more information is available.

Reuters verified personal information for six DHS employees named in the leak by matching it against credit bureau records and dark web intelligence data. The news agency called three of those employees directly and confirmed their phone numbers and other details. One employee said it was the first they had heard of a breach.

In some cases, the leaked data tracked information already available on LinkedIn profiles. In other cases, it revealed non-public data about internal organization charts or previously undisclosed programs. This leak follows a September claim by ShinyHunters of a massive FBI data theft. Last week, the U.S. War Department faced a class-action lawsuit after a breach exposed data on millions of military personnel.