A hacking group cracked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's personnel files, exposing the names, phone numbers and addresses of more than 40,000 DHS agents, operatives, and associates, on Wednesday, including those involved in undercover operations.
"On July 17th, Markwayne Mullin said he was 'turning up the heat.' This is what happens to ICE when you do that," a spokesperson for the hacktivist group behind the breach, the Department of Peace, said in an online statement.
The hackers said they stole the data by subverting DHS's single sign on system, according to an online post. It said it distributed that material to the group Distributed Denial of Secrets, which posted it online in a database called Icepick. The Department of Peace also shared the trove of data with Ryan Ottignon, a U.S.-based journalist, and a Swiss hacker known as maia arson crimew. Together, the two created a searchable online database, with crimew doing all of the technical work, Ottignon told NPR.
DDoSecrets cofounder Emma Best called the leak "extraordinary but deceptive in its simplicity," because it makes explicit connections between "officials responsible for overseeing covert and undercover operations …along with key personnel in DHS's ever-escalating rendition and deportation programs."
Other activists say the information will be a boon to those investigating DHS and filing freedom of information requests, which, due to a lack of specific information, like names, email addresses, can often yield useless results.
In a statement, DHS said it was "aware of a potential breach and is actively working to address the situation swiftly and effectively." The department added that it is taking necessary steps to "ensure all are properly protected."
More than 21,000 records identify employees with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Another 10,000 relate to Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and its Homeland Security Investigations unit.
It is an unprecedented breach of intelligence, coming on the heels of similar hacking attacks at the FBI. However, the database is far from comprehensive and represents about a fifth of Homeland Security's workforce, which staffs a little more than 220,000 people.
Ottignon, who has worked on similar data leak projects in the past, rejected suggestions that he and others connected to the Department of Peace or Distribution Denials of Secrets were doxing government employees.
"We are in a situation in which a group of public officials go around into cities and states and all around the country, and they seek to hide who they are. Very frequently using masks, wearing plain clothes. And they do universally unspeakable things to these communities," Ottignon said. He added that he believed that kind of behavior is unacceptable in a free society.
"We need oversight for useful government, if it exists at all. So this is just one step in that oversight process," he added.
In a note attached to the files, DDoSecrets wrote, "They have our information, so it's only fair that we have theirs."