യുഎസ് ഡിപ്പാർട്ട്മെന്റ് ഓഫ് ഹോംലാൻഡ് സെക്യൂരിറ്റിയിലെ 41,000-ത്തിലധികം ജീവനക്കാരുടെ സ്വകാര്യ വിവരങ്ങൾ ചോർന്നത് വലിയ സുരക്ഷാ ഭീഷണിയായി. ഇമെയിൽ, ഫോൺ നമ്പർ, രഹസ്യ നിരീക്ഷണ വിവരങ്ങൾ എന്നിവയാണ് ചോർന്നത്. 'ഐസ്പിക്ക്' എന്ന് പേരിട്ടിരിക്കുന്ന ഈ വിവരങ്ങൾ ഡിഡിഒസീക്രറ്റ്സ് പുറത്തുവിട്ടു. ഏജൻസിയുടെ ആഭ്യന്തര സുരക്ഷയെക്കുറിച്ച് വലിയ ആശങ്കകളാണ് ഉയരുന്നത്.
A massive data breach has exposed the personal information of more than 41,000 employees and contractors working for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its agencies. The leaked records include email addresses, phone numbers, office addresses, as well as sensitive details about undercover and surveillance programs. The incident has raised major concerns about the security of DHS's internal systems.
The data leak has been linked to DHS's Okta login system.
The transparency non-profit Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) and cybersecurity researcher and journalist maia arson crimew previewed the data with WIRED, which they say they obtained from a group calling itself the Department of Peace.
DDoSecrets published the archive, dubbed Icepick, on Wednesday after claiming that They have our information, so it's only fair that we have theirs.
In response to the data leak, an Okta spokesperson told WIRED that they are unaware of any breach in their systems.
We are aware of this report. Okta is secure, and we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised, the spokesperson said.
This statement comes amid growing concerns over the security of DHS's internal systems after the massive data breach.
The data leak comes at a time when the DHS has been aggressively targeting its critics.
The agency has been trying to unmask anonymous social media users, obtain customer records on protesters, and secure warrants for surveillance tools targeting reporters.
Under the second Trump administration, DHS and the federal government have sought to hide names and faces of its employees.
The leaked data covers about a seventh of the DHS's workforce, exposing its structure from top leadership to rank-and-file immigration agents and detention contractors.
A WIRED analysis found that more than half of the records belong to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staffers.
About 10,000 records for ICE are included in the breach, roughly a third of them in Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), ICE's investigative arm.
The leaked records show that like most large organizations, DHS uses permission groups to control access to internal systems.
Nearly everyone named in the leak has access to at least some of these systems.
At HSI, 39 employees across more than a dozen field offices belong to groups whose names include CUC, which government court filings say stands for certified undercover operation.
The leaked records also reference tools for accessing immigration court records, pulling data from seized phones, and conducting surveillance.
These include Palantir's Falcon investigative platform and PenLink, which analyzes phone records and social media.
Two permission groups, Executive Leadership and AI Access, appear to list people given exceptions to DHS's web filter that blocks some websites for employees.
Alexander Leslie, a national security expert at threat intelligence company Recorded Future, said if the leaked data is authentic and current, it is an extraordinarily valuable intelligence resource for those seeking to penetrate DHS.
He added, This dataset becomes way more valuable when correlated with previously compromised information, commercial data, and other intelligence collections.
An adversary could spend months exploiting these relationships to identify vulnerable personnel or compromise ongoing investigations.