- A hacktivist group has hacked into the US Department of Homeland Security
- The group allegedly stole documents containing contracts between ICE and private companies
- The stolen data has been posted online
A hacktivist group has claimed to have broken into systems belonging to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and exposed sensitive files online.
The group, with the self-assigned name “The Department of Peace,” stole data from the Office of Industry Partnership that contained contracts between DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and over 6,000 private companies.
Among the companies contracted to work with DHS and ICE were Anduril, L3Harris, Raytheon, Palantir, Microsoft and Oracle.
Ministry of Peace
The files stolen by the Department of Peace have been posted online by the nonprofit transparency collective, DDoSecrets. The site states that the documents include:
- Company names
- Company URLs
- Names of various employees and sometimes their titles
- Business and potentially personal addresses
- Employee phone numbers
- Employee email addresses
- Tax identification numbers, including employer identification numbers and potentially SSNs
- Other government contractor identifiers, such as UEI numbers and CAGE codes
- Some internal comments from DHS staff regarding things like updates to the information above
The reason for the hack relates to the killing of two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renée Good, by federal agents in Minneapolis. A statement from the hackers accompanying the data says: “Why hack DHS? I can think of a few good reasons! I’m releasing this because DHS is killing us and people deserve to know what companies support them and what they’re working on.”
The hackers included an additional statement: “To DHS: You are neither increasing the security of our homeland, nor are you safe yourselves. How does it feel to be hunted? To the contractors: You wage war just to make money. I do this for free. How does it feel to be spied on?”
The contract information stolen from DHS has been hosted online by security researcher Micah Lee and can be filtered by contractor and amount of money.
Under the Trump administration, federal agents from DHS and ICE have launched one of the most aggressive deportation campaigns, which has seen numerous US citizens illegally detained and numerous individuals deported without due process.
Detention centers on American soil have been criticized for having inhumane conditions due to overcrowding. The United States has also used external detention centers and prisons with alleged human rights abuses, including sexual abuse and torture, such as El Salvador’s Cecot prison.
DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Any updates will be posted here.
Via TechCrunch
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