A technical report has revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been subjected to a major cyberattack that led to the leak of personal data for more than 41,000 employees. The leaked data included names, job titles, phone numbers, email addresses, and office locations, representing an extremely serious security vulnerability.
Breach Details and Affected Entities
According to available information, the breach was carried out by a hacker calling themselves "Department of Peace," who managed to access the data by exploiting the Okta platform, an identity and access management service used by the Department. The leaked records were distributed to include approximately 21,000 employees in Customs and Border Protection (CBP), about 7,000 employees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in addition to records from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
What Does This Breach Mean?
The danger of this leak is not limited to personal data alone, but extends to revealing the agencies' connection to specific surveillance tools. The leak included information about groups within the Department that have access to advanced surveillance technologies, such as the facial recognition application Mobile Fortify and the PenLink tool, which is used to collect and analyze data from phones and online services.
The hacker stated that the motive behind this action is to reveal the identities of employees involved in immigration-related raids, noting that this measure comes in a reciprocal context. It is worth noting that this incident comes just a few weeks after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was subjected to a similar breach affecting the data of its employees and job applicants.
Fate of the Leaked Data
The leaked data was shared with cybersecurity researcher maia arson crimew, who in turn handed it over to the non-profit organization Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), which is currently hosting the leaked dataset under the name "Icepick." As of the time of writing this report, the US Department of Homeland Security has not issued an official response regarding the incident.