Data on More Than 40,000 DHS Workers Published After Claimed Breach
publishers 16articles 16first reported 28 Oct, 20:46 UTCdeveloping since 29 Oct · 3 editions
Distributed Denial of Secrets published records Wednesday covering more than 40,000 U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees and contractors, including personnel in surveillance, special operations, computer forensics and undercover work.
The files include names, phone numbers, email addresses, job titles and membership in internal groups across agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. DDoSecrets said it received the information from an entity calling itself “Department of Peace,” which claimed the data was taken from an Okta sign-on service used by DHS.
DHS said it was aware of a potential breach and was working to address it and protect employees. Okta said it had no evidence that its systems or data were compromised. Reuters said it could not verify the entire archive or the account of how it was obtained, but matched information for about six employees against other records and confirmed details directly with three DHS workers.
DDoSecrets co-founder Emma Best said a searchable tool created for the archive could assist journalists, congressional oversight and public-records requests.
Bluesky blocked links to the dataset, saying the files contained email addresses and phone numbers shared without authorization, in violation of its privacy rules. The company said it blocked the links rather than removing posts so users could continue discussing the leak and sharing related reporting. Best disputed that the records contained personal contact information, describing the details as professional contact data.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 4 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 18 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 16
- Source articles
- 16
- Given to the writer
- 8, 4 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 18 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
Written by a language model from the sources above, then checked by a second model that may only cut, attribute or correct. How it works →