Hackers have obtained and published internal data on more than 41,000 employees and contractors at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), exposing names, contact information and job assignments across multiple federal agencies, according to reports by CyberScoop and Straight Arrow News.
The leaked database, called “Icepick” by those behind the release, includes personnel from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and several other DHS agencies.
The information reportedly includes names, phone numbers, email addresses, job titles and internal user groups that provide insight into employees’ roles within the department.
The data was obtained by the transparency nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets and Swiss hacker and journalist maia arson crimew from a group calling itself the Department of Peace, which claimed responsibility for the breach. The group said it accessed the information through an Okta single sign-on service used by DHS employees.
The dataset covers approximately 42,000 people, representing about one-fifth of the department’s workforce. It includes employees from the DHS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Federal Protective Service and other DHS divisions.
Some of the records include internal group names associated with undercover and covert operations, special operations and other department activities. Researchers also found older entries referencing COVID-19 planning and internal events dating back several years.
The nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets published the dataset alongside a search tool developed by crimew. The tool allows users to search records by employee name, agency, job title and location.
Straight Arrow News reported that it used the database to identify information about two Customs and Border Protection agents, Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez, who fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January. The database did not return results for Jonathan Ross, the agent reported to have fatally shot Renee Good.
The group behind the breach said the release was a response to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s July 17 comments about increasing immigration enforcement operations.