World

Data on thousands of US Homeland Security staff leaked

By Raphael Satter and AJ Vicens

Oct 29, 2026

Department of Homeland Security headquarters in Washington — Hackers have identified thousands of Department of Homeland Security staff in a massive data breach. -AP

Leak website Distributed Denial of Secrets has released data on more than 40,000 ‌US Department of Homeland Security employees, including details about officials working in surveillance and human intelligence.

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DHS said in a statement it was "aware of a potential ‌breach and is actively working to address the situation swiftly and effectively."

The agency said it was working to ensure its employees were properly protected and would update the public "when more information is available."

A group called the Department of Peace accessed the information from DHS, while journalist and hacktivist maia crimew alongside Distributed Denial of Secrets put the details online.

The disclosure is the third major government data leak to have made headlines in the past month.

In September, the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed the theft of a massive trove of data ‌from the FBI, including sensitive job ⁠details and medical information from thousands of bureau employees. Last week, the Defence Department was hit with a class action lawsuit following a breach that exposed data on millions of current and former military personnel.

The DHS data includes names, phone numbers and email addresses of employees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and other DHS component agencies.

Also included in the data were job titles and email groups, which, among other details, showed which agents were assigned to special operations, surveillance jobs, computer forensics and undercover work.

In a statement, Distributed Denial of Secrets ⁠co-founder Emma Best said maia crimew developed a search ‌tool for the data that would allow the public to browse it.

Best said the tool would "replace anonymity with accountability" and empower journalists, guide public records requests and boost congressional oversight.

Crimew said her tool ‌would provide "FOIA material for years to come!"

The Department of Peace did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said in a statement that DHS employees "have our information, so it's only fair that we have theirs".

The group hoped the data "can be used to limit further harm by the DHS and supports all efforts in that direction."

The Department of Peace in March claimed responsibility for hacking DHS and posting documents related to contracts with outside vendors.

Best's statement said the Department of Peace harvested the data from the Okta sign-on service used by DHS.

‌Reuters could not corroborate the claim.

Okta said in response that "we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised."

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the entire data trove but it was able to match personal information about six DHS employees named in the leak to credit bureau records and breach data carried by the dark web intelligence platform District 4 Labs.

Reuters called three DHS employees directly and was able to confirm their phone numbers and other details.

In several cases, the data tracked information available on DHS employees' LinkedIn profiles. But in others, ⁠the data revealed non-public data about internal DHS organisation charts or previously undisclosed programs or operations.