Hackers penetrated the system of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), stealing personal data of more than 40,000 employees.

The non-profit organization specializing in data leaks Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS) said on October 28 that it had obtained sensitive data from a hacker group called "Department of Peace".

The data contains the names, titles, phone numbers, emails, and office addresses of more than 40,000 employees, including people from units under the US Department of Homeland Security such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Homeland Security Administration (HSI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

"The data set is extremely large, in terms of both scale and influence. It provides unprecedented insight into organizational structure, clarifying who does what in many agencies within DHS," said cybersecurity expert Maia Arson Crimew.

According to AFP, the hacker group Department of Peace created a tool called Icepick, which helps search for employee names, offices and tasks. According to TechCrunch, hackers took data from Okta's single sign-on system, which is used by DHS to allow employees and contractors from different agencies to log into the central network. Okta systems also contain information technology and login records associated with employee accounts, including details about which internal systems and applications they are authorized to access.

About 21,000 records, accounting for more than half of the data set, are tied to CBP employees who work at airports and border gates. In addition, it also contains about 10,000 ICE and HSI employee records, nearly 1,000 CISA employee records, and thousands of other records related to employees at DHS headquarters and affiliated agencies.

"They have our information, so it's only fair that we have their information," the hacker group wrote in a message attached to the data set.

TechCrunch verified part of the data as authentic by comparing the names of several security personnel.

"DHS is aware of the potential security breach and is actively handling the situation quickly and effectively. We take every security threat to our employees seriously and work to ensure all are fully protected. We will update publicly when we have more information," a DHS spokesperson told TechCrunch.

This is the latest data leak targeting the US government in the past few months. Last month, thousands of FBI personnel files and personal information of millions of serving and discharged soldiers from the Pentagon's human resources department were also stolen.

The October 28 incident was also the second leak related to DHS this year, also carried out by the Department of Peace hacker group. In March, the group claimed to have stolen thousands of contracts between DHS and the private sector, including defense contractors and surveillance equipment providers.

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