Group Leaks Data Identifying More Than 40,000 Homeland Security Employees and Contractors

Distributed Denial of Secrets, a transparency nonprofit, released data on Wednesday identifying more than 41,000 employees and contractors of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in what the Guardian called an unprecedented leak showing how the agency is organized. The records include names, phone numbers, email addresses, job titles and email groups from DHS agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Homeland Security Investigations and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. More than 21,000 of those named work for CBP and about 6,600 for ICE. The data also references operation names, surveillance programs and undercover initiatives, and shows which personnel were assigned to special operations, surveillance, computer forensics and undercover work. It is the third such government data disclosure in the last month. Emma Best, a co-founder of the group, said in a statement that the hacktivist known as "maia arson crimew" developed a tool or method tied to the release; the full details were not available in the excerpt provided.

Left-leaning outlets NPR and The Guardian US lead with the scale of the leak and the group's justification. NPR relays the hacktivists' view that unmasking ICE agents, DHS operatives and contractors was fair play given government opacity. The Guardian adds the most detail on what the files contain, with agency-by-agency counts, and sets the leak against DHS's efforts to unmask social media critics and obtain records on protesters and journalists while defending agents' right to hide their identities. It also features a named source, Emma Best. Straight Arrow News, an independent outlet, frames the story as a breach by hackers that exposed agents who had been shielded by DHS, focusing on the exposure of ICE and CBP personnel rather than the group's rationale or DHS's treatment of critics. Right-leaning outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing, while left-leaning and independent outlets had.