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4h ago

Hack Exposes More Than 40,000 DHS Personnel Records

The release maps employee access to surveillance and cloud tools, raising security, oversight, personal‑safety concerns.

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WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 07: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security emblem on the U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement building as seen on January 07, 2026 in Washington, DC. According to reports, a federal agent allegedly fatally shot a woman in her car during an incident in south Minneapolis. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

Overview

  • A published dataset contains personally identifiable records for over 40,000 Department of Homeland Security employees, including large numbers of Customs and Border Protection and ICE/HSI staff.
  • TechCrunch partially verified the material and found timestamps consistent with a mid‑year exfiltration, while the hacker handle 'Department of Peace' gave the files to maia arson crimew, who shared them with DDoSecrets.
  • The data includes Active Directory user‑group memberships that reveal which staff had access to internal systems and third‑party tools such as Microsoft 365, Penlink, Mobile Fortify, Headspace and references to ChatGPT.
  • Okta said it has no evidence its systems were compromised and DHS has not publicly confirmed the breach or described remediation, leaving the vulnerability and scope of exposure unresolved.
  • The leak could both help journalists and legal advocates make targeted records requests and investigations and put individual employees at risk by exposing contact details and operational access, and it follows a pattern of high‑profile U.S. government personnel and contract disclosures this year.