The non-profit transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets said on Wednesday it published data covering more than 40,000 Department of Homeland Security employees, in a homeland security data breach the group says draws on material obtained by an entity calling itself Department of Peace.

What the data contains

According to Distributed Denial of Secrets, the files hold names, phone numbers and email addresses of staff from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, CISA and other DHS component agencies. They also cover officials working in sensitive fields such as surveillance and human intelligence.

• •Job titles and email groups showed which agents were assigned to special operations, surveillance jobs, computer forensics and undercover work.
• •Some entries tracked information from employees' LinkedIn profiles.
• •Other material revealed nonpublic data about internal DHS organization charts or previously undisclosed programs or operations.

Who is behind it

Distributed Denial of Secrets attributes the material to Department of Peace, which claimed responsibility in March for hacking DHS and posting documents related to contracts with outside vendors. In a statement released with the data, the group said DHS employees "have our information, so it's only fair that we have theirs" and that it hoped the data "can be used to limit further harm by the DHS". Department of Peace did not immediately respond to a comment request.

DDoS co-founder Emma Best said the hacktivist known as "maia arson crimew" developed a search tool allowing the public to browse the data. Best said the tool would "replace anonymity with accountability", empowering journalists, guiding public records requests and boosting congressional oversight.

Okta dispute and verification

Best's statement said Department of Peace harvested the data from the Okta sign-on service used by DHS. Okta disputed that account, saying in a statement: "Okta is secure, and we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised."

Reuters could not immediately corroborate the Okta claim, but said it matched personal information of about six DHS employees named in the leak to credit bureau records and breach data from dark web intelligence platform District 4 Labs. Reporters called three DHS employees directly and confirmed their phone numbers and other details; one said it was the first they had heard of a breach.

Third government leak in a month

The release is the third government data leak to make headlines in the past month. In September, the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed the theft of a massive trove of FBI data, including job details and medical information of thousands of bureau employees. Last week, the defense department was hit with a class action lawsuit following a breach that exposed data on millions of current and former military personnel.

DHS did not immediately return a message seeking comment, and the claim that the data came from the Okta sign-on service remains unverified.