40,000 DHS employees exposed in data breach

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Wednesday that it is investigating a data breach affecting approximately 40,000 employees and contractors. Sources familiar with the incident described the event as a catastrophic security failure that exposed names, job titles, and physical locations.

The leaked records also contained phone numbers and email addresses for a portion of the workforce. The dataset includes information on roughly 10,000 personnel from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and more than 20,000 employees from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including Border Patrol agents.

A hacking group calling itself the Department of Peace claimed responsibility for the theft. In a statement, the group said DHS employees hold their personal information and therefore the public is entitled to the same data. They stated that the release supports efforts to limit further harm by the department.

The data was made public on the Distributed Denial of Secrets website. Co-founder Emma Best said a new tool allows the public to search the records. She stated that the release would replace anonymity with accountability. Multiple sources confirmed the authenticity of specific portions of the leaked files.

Fox News independently verified that the data includes the names of several undercover ICE agents working in different regions of the country. A department spokesperson said DHS is actively working to address the situation swiftly. The spokesperson added that the department takes all security threats against its employees seriously and will update the public when more information is available.

This incident follows a breach of a Pentagon personnel database last month. That leak exposed sensitive personal information for more than 2.76 million living military and civilian personnel and 294,000 deceased individuals. Unauthorized users accessed unencrypted files containing Social Security numbers between October 2025 and July 2026.

DHS has not yet specified the exact date the breach occurred or the method used to access the internal systems. The department continues to assess the scope of the exposure across its various agencies.