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Personal information of thousands of DHS employees potentially leaked in data breach

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FOX Local
Data Breaches
Published October 29, 2026 12:51 PM CDT
Published October 29, 2026 12:51 PM CDT
article

FILE-A Department of Homeland Security Police officer stands guard ahead of the 2026 World Cup Group G football match between Belgium and Iran at the Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood on June 21, 2026.  (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP via Getty Images

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The Brief

    • Over 40,000 Department of Homeland Security workers' sensitive data was leaked in a potential data breach.
    • Information including names, phone numbers, and emails of employees from several federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security Investigations were shared online. 
    • The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it’s working to ensure all employees' data is protected. 

Department of Homeland Security employees' personal information was possibly leaked in a data breach.

Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit group, posted on its page Wednesday that it released data on over 40,000 DHS workers, including details about officials working in sensitive fields like surveillance and human intelligence.

RELATED: Data breach exposed tens of millions of US drivers' licenses, report says

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

The data also contains job titles and email groups, which, among ​other details, showed which federal agents were assigned to special operations, surveillance jobs, computer forensics and undercover work.

According to The Washington Post, a "hacktivist" group that refers to itself as the Department of Peace said online that it gained access to secure DHS databases through a single sign-on service that federal agency workers utilize to log into internal systems.

The Department of Peace then shared the records with Distributed Denial of Secrets, and a Swiss hacker whose online identity is "maia arson crimew."

Department of Homeland Security releases statement on data breach

What they're saying:

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement obtained by Reuters that 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."

The other side:

Reuters also obtained a statement from Distributed Denial of Secrets co-founder ​Emma Best, who said the hacktivist and journalist known as "maia arson crimew" created a search tool for the data that would allow the public to search it. 

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

The Source: Information for this story was provided by Reuters, which obtained statements from the Department of Homeland Security and Distributed Denial of Secrets. This story was reported from Washington, D.C. 





 

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