Data on more than 40,000 DHS workers is now online

More than 21,000 of the records now online belong to Customs and Border Protection employees, part of a leak that covers more than 40,000 people across the Department of Homeland Security.

The database, called Icepick, was published Wednesday through the leak collective Distributed Denial of Secrets. It includes names, job titles, work email addresses, phone numbers and office or work-location information for employees and contractors at CBP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other DHS offices.

What got exposed: The records go beyond a basic staff directory. They include internal email and access groups, job assignments and information that points to work involving surveillance, undercover operations and computer forensics. Reporting also found references to tools including PenLink, which analyzes communications and online activity, and the Mobile Fortify facial-recognition app.

The claimed route in: An entity calling itself Department of Peace said it obtained the records through an Okta single sign-on service used by DHS. That account of how the data was obtained has not been independently verified. Okta said it was aware of the reports and that it had no evidence its data or systems had been compromised.

DHS later said it was aware of a potential breach and was working to address the situation and protect those affected. The records are not a complete DHS personnel list, but they represent roughly one-fifth of the department's workforce of about 220,000 people.

What checks out: TechCrunch matched several known DHS employees to an offline copy of the database. Reuters, reporting through the Guardian, matched information for about six employees to other records and confirmed details directly with three. That does not authenticate every entry, but it confirms that real employees' information is in the trove.

The leak follows recent reported disclosures involving FBI personnel data and Defense Department-related records. The immediate question is what DHS finds when it traces the potential breach and whether the exposed records included access information beyond the employee details already published.