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Leak website releases data on tens of thousands of US govt employees

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The Straits Times. (2026, October 29). Leak website releases data on tens of thousands of US govt employees. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/leak-website-releases-data-on-tens-of-thousands-of-us-govt-employees

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The Straits Times · collected 2026-10-29 · by The Straits Times

Quick Summary

On October 28, a leak website called Distributed Denial of Secrets released data on over 40,000 U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees, including sensitive information about those in surveillance roles. The data includes personal details such as names, phone numbers, and emails, along with job titles from various DHS agencies. The leak is attributed to a hacker group named “Department of Peace,” which previously claimed responsibility for hacking DHS in March.
Written by AI on 2026-10-30, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

On October 28, 2026, the leak website Distributed Denial of Secrets released data on more than 41,000 personnel from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including thousands involved in immigration enforcement like ICE and CBP. The leaked information includes names, work addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of DHS staff. The hacktivist group "The Department of Peace" claimed responsibility, arguing that since government employees have their data, it is fair to share theirs. DHS has started an investigation into the breach, while some hackers are developing search tools for public use. The Icelandic hosting company FlokiNET received a request from DHS to take down or limit access to this information due to security risks, but decided against it.

Written for “DHS Data Breach Exposes Employees” on 2026-11-01, grounded in this article and the 11 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 DHS Data Breach Exposes Employees
Politics · 12 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 10% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
The Independent
Hedges 2 of 25 claims Outlet record 59/100
NPR
Hedges 1 of 21 claims Outlet record 60/100
The Guardian
Hedges 2 of 18 claims Outlet record 66/100
CBC News
Hedges 2 of 20 claims Outlet record 60/100
New York Post
Hedges 2 of 23 claims Outlet record 66/100
BBC News
Hedges 4 of 29 claims Outlet record 68/100
The Guardian
⚖️ Centre Hedges 1 of 10 claims Outlet record 66/100
Al Jazeera
Hedges 0 of 26 claims Outlet record 60/100
CBS News
Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 66/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
20
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
10%
2 of 20 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
The Straits Times's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
12
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-30 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Straits Times · 4115 article(s) · 5 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 5 correction(s)

Who wrote this

The Straits Times
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Also by The Straits Times
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 2652 articles by The Straits Times →

Topics

DHS Distributed Denial of Secrets Okta Reuters The Department of Peace

Subjects

DHS ORG · 12× Reuters ORG · 5× The Department of Peace ORG · 3× Best PERSON · 2× Distributed Denial of Secrets ORG · 2× Department of Homeland Security ORG · 1× Department of Peace ORG · 1× ShinyHunters ORG · 1× WASHINGTON GPE · 1× the Federal Bureau of Investigation ORG · 1×

Narrative

The Department of Peace did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a statement included with the data it said that DHS employees “have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs” and that it hoped the data “can be used to limit further harm by the DHS and supports all efforts in that direction”.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-30
🔮 In a statement, Distributed Denial of Secrets co-founder Emma Best said the hacktivist known as “maia arson crimew” developed a search tool for the data that would allow the public to browse it.
2026-10-30 · The Straits Times
Leak website releases data on tens of thousands of US govt employees · assertive framing

Claims (20 extracted, 2 hedged)

Leak website releases data on tens of thousands of US govt employees AI generated asserted
website → release → employees
The leak website Distributed Denial of Secrets said on Oct 28 it has released data on more than 40,000 US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees, including details about officials working in sensitive fields such as surveillance and human intelligence. asserted
it → say → surveillance
DHS did not return multiple messages seeking comment. asserted
DHS → return → comment
The disclosure – which the nonprofit data transparency group says draws on information obtained by an entity calling itself “Department of Peace” – is the third major government data leak to have made headlines in the past month. asserted
group → say → month
In September, the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed the theft of a massive trove of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including sensitive job details and medical information from thousands of bureau employees. asserted
group → claim → employees
In October, the Defence Department was hit with a class action lawsuit following a breach that exposed data on millions of current and former military personnel. asserted
that → hit → personnel
The DHS data includes names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of employees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and other DHS component agencies. asserted
data → include → Customs
Also included in the data were job titles and e-mail groups, which, among other details, showed which agents were assigned to special operations, surveillance jobs, computer forensics and undercover work. asserted
agents → include → operations
In a statement, Distributed Denial of Secrets co-founder Emma Best said the hacktivist known as “maia arson crimew” developed a search tool for the data that would allow the public to browse it. asserted
public → say → it
Best said the tool would “replace anonymity with accountability” and empower journalists, guide public records requests and boost congressional oversight. asserted
tool → say → oversight
The Department of Peace did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a statement included with the data it said that DHS employees “have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs” and that it hoped the data “can be used to limit further harm by the DHS and supports all efforts in that direction”. asserted
data → respond → direction
The Department of Peace in March claimed responsibility for hacking DHS and posting documents related to contracts with outside vendors. asserted
Department → claim → vendors
Best’s statement said the Department of Peace harvested the data from the Okta sign-on service used by DHS. asserted
Department → say → DHS
Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim. uncertain
Reuters → corroborate → claim
Okta said in response to a Reuters query: “Okta is secure, and we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised.” asserted
data → say → evidence
Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the entire data trove, but it was able to match personal information about six DHS employees named in the leak to credit bureau records and breach data carried by the dark web intelligence platform District 4 Labs. uncertain
it → verify → platform
Reuters called three DHS employees directly and was able to confirm their phone numbers and other details. asserted
Reuters → call → numbers
One said it was the first they had heard of a breach. asserted
they → say → breach
In several cases, the data tracked information available on DHS employees’ LinkedIn profiles. asserted
data → track → profiles
But in others, the data revealed nonpublic data about internal DHS organisation charts or previously undisclosed programmes or operations. asserted
data → reveal → charts
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