The identities of more than 41,000 Department of Homeland Security officials have allegedly been exposed in a massive data breach claimed by a hacktivist group calling itself the Department of Peace.
Late Wednesday U.S. time, the database was posted on Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit dedicated to news leaks, which said it was obtained from an Okta single sign-on service used by DHS.
The searchable database appears to reveal employee names, offices, contact information and assignments.
Okta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DDoS said the leak "is not a comprehensive list of all DHS employees." Cofounder Emma Best said, "Rather than an indiscriminate directory of every DHS employee, Icepick identifies many of the architects and drivers of DHS policy and operations."
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency told The Washington Post it was "aware of a potential breach" and was "working to address the situation swiftly and effectively."
The database appears to include employees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection and DHS headquarters.
The hacker group said the leak was carried out in response to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin reportedly saying on July 17 that ICE will be "turning up the heat on the streets" by intensifying immigration arrests and traffic stops.
During President Donald Trump's second term, backlash to his efforts to intensify arrests and deportations of suspected illegal immigrants has grown as ICE agents have been documented using physical force during operations.
DHS completed 980,000 deportations in the first 18 months of his term, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
