A hacker group calling itself the “Department of Peace” released the names, phone numbers, email addresses and job details of more than 41,000 current and former Homeland Security employees and contractors on Wednesday, including officers who work undercover in immigration enforcement.
The data was published by the leak site Distributed Denial of Secrets, known as DDoSecrets, on a searchable website it calls “Icepick.” The group said it acted in retaliation for DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s pledge in July to step up immigration enforcement.
🇺🇸 Hackers just EXPOSED more than 40,000 Homeland Security employees, including undercover agents, surveillance teams and intelligence officers. The leak, published by Distributed Denial of Secrets, covers staff from ICE, Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations and more. Names, phone numbers, emails and job titles revealing exactly who works undercover and special operations. All with a public search tool. The group behind the hack, calling itself the "Department of Peace," said DHS employees "have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs." DHS says it’s working to protect its staff. It’s the third major U.S. government leak in a month, after the FBI and the Pentagon. WTF? The department in charge of protecting the homeland couldn’t protect its own staff list? Not the least bit reassuring. Source: Reuters / Writer: Julie
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 29, 2026
What was exposed
Fox News reported that the records cover roughly 10,000 ICE personnel and more than 20,000 Customs and Border Protection employees, including Border Patrol. Multiple sources confirmed parts of the data to Fox, and the network independently confirmed that the leak includes the names of several undercover ICE agents working in different parts of the country. Sources called it a “catastrophic” security incident.
The Icepick site itself lists more than 21,000 Border Patrol personnel and nearly 6,600 ICE agents, according to The Epoch Times. The records also include Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service, DHS headquarters and the cybersecurity agency CISA.
DDoSecrets co-founder Emma Best said the dataset identifies officials who oversee covert and undercover operations, officials involved in hunting leakers and people in DHS deportation programs. She said the search tool would “replace anonymity with accountability.”
Nextgov/FCW checked the data and found a DHS work phone number it already had, along with job titles that matched employees’ LinkedIn profiles. Some records are old and list people who have since left the department.
Who did it and why
The group said it got the records through an identity service DHS uses and pointed to Okta’s single sign-on system. Okta said it has no evidence that its systems or data were compromised.
In a press release, the hackers tied the attack to Mullin’s July 17 remarks, writing, “This is what happens to ICE when you do that.” They also said DHS employees “have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs.”
This is the same group that in March leaked DHS and ICE contract records naming more than 6,000 companies, TechCrunch reported at the time.
DHS responds
“DHS is aware of a potential breach and is actively working to address the situation swiftly and effectively,” a department spokesperson said, adding that DHS takes threats to its workforce seriously and will update the public when it knows more.
The leak follows other breaches of federal personnel data. Last month, a Pentagon official disclosed that a personnel database breach exposed records on more than 2.76 million living military and civilian personnel. Nextgov also reported that DHS staff twice dismissed signs of an intrusion into the Homeland Security Information Network earlier this year as false alarms before confirming a breach.
The bottom line
Publishing the names and phone numbers of undercover officers puts those officers, their families and their cases at risk. ICE and Border Patrol agents carry out laws passed by Congress. The people who stole this data said openly that they did it to punish the department for enforcing those laws, and DDoSecrets built a public search tool to make the information easy to use.
The Justice Department should treat this as the serious federal crime it is and pursue the hackers and anyone who knowingly helped spread the stolen data. Congress should also pass clear anti-doxxing protections for federal law enforcement officers.
DHS also owes its own workforce a full accounting. Its employees deserve to know how a database this sensitive was reached, why earlier warning signs were missed and what the department is doing now to protect the officers whose names are online.