Hacktivist group leaks data on more than 40,000 DHS employees, including ICE and CBP staff

What was published

Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit transparency group, published an archive called Icepick on Wednesday, 28 October 2026. The files carry personal work details for more than 40,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) staff, although the BBC, The Verge and Wired put the figure at more than 41,000. Wired reports that the records cover DHS itself and seven component agencies, and that they were last updated on 19 August 2026. Each entry lists a name, job title, phone number, email address and office location. The Guardian says the job titles and email groups show which people worked on special operations, surveillance, computer forensics and undercover assignments.

How the group says it got the data

A hacktivist group calling itself the Department of Peace says it obtained the information through DHS's use of Okta, a single sign-on service that lets employees and contractors log into the department's central network. TechCrunch reports that the same Okta system holds login records and details of which internal apps each account may open. In a note left with the files, the group said DHS staff have its information and that it hoped the data could limit further harm by the department.

“They have our information, so it's only fair that we have theirs.”

Okta responded to the claims through a spokeswoman, who said the company was aware of them.

“Okta is secure, and we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised.”

POLITICO said it could not independently check the dataset, while Reuters and TechCrunch tied parts of it to third-party records and to names of known DHS staff. DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Which agencies are exposed

TechCrunch says more than half the dataset, about 21,000 records, relates to staff at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), who work at airports and other ports of entry. The same outlet counts another 10,000 records for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its Homeland Security Investigations unit. The Verge gives a lower figure for ICE, nearly 7,000 records, so the two outlets' counts differ and should be read as a discrepancy rather than an update. Records also cover staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Federal Protective Service. The Verge further reports that the material points to DHS groups with access to surveillance tools, including the facial recognition app Mobile Fortify and PenLink.

Customs and Border Protection21,000

ICE and HSI10,000

Customs and Border Protection

21000 records

ICE and HSI

10000 records

Data from the article text

Earlier breaches this autumn

The Guardian counts this release as the third government data disclosure in the past month. In September, the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen a large trove of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including job details and medical information on thousands of bureau employees. In October 2026, the defense department faced a class action lawsuit after a breach exposed data on millions of current and former military personnel. The Department of Peace had also claimed in March that it hacked DHS and posted documents about contracts with outside vendors, which TechCrunch describes as the second Homeland Security breach this year.

Reactions and open questions

Emma Best, a co-founder of Distributed Denial of Secrets, said in a statement that a search tool built by the hacktivist maia arson crimew would let the public browse the data. Best argued that the tool would help journalists, guide public records requests and strengthen congressional oversight. Wired reports that DHS has sought to hide employee names and faces since the start of the second Trump administration, and that it has widened its definition of doxing to cover basic facts such as names and titles. The department had not responded to requests for comment at the time of reporting.