A hacker is claiming to have stolen names, job titles, email addresses and phone numbers on close to 30,000 officials at the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The information came with more than 200 gigabytes of data the hacker claimed he was able to steal by hacking a computer at the Department of Justice, according to a report published in Motherboard on Sunday. Shortly after its publication, the perpetrator released data on 9,000 alleged DHS employees via Twitter.
The hacker claimed he was able to get the data by gaining access to an employee at the DoJ. Afterward, he tried to log in to the department’s web portal, but was unsuccessful until he contacted customer service.
“So I called up, told them I was new and I didn’t understand how to get past [the portal],” the hacker said. “They asked if I had a token code, I said no, they said that’s fine — just use our one.”
From the portal, he had access to three different devices used by the hacked employee, including documents that were made available on the local network. That included more than a terabyte of data. However, the hacker was able to download only 200 gigabytes.
In addition to the information on DHS employees, the hacker said he was able to obtain the same data on more than 20,000 officials at the FBI, and some credit card data and some military email addresses. He has promised to release the remaining data at some point.
On Monday, the DoJ and DHS issued statements saying the information released thus far may have been publicly available, and that it did not necessarily prove a successful hacking incident.
“We take these reports very seriously, however there is no indication at this time that there is any breach of sensitive or personally identifiable information,” the DHS statement said. A DoJ spokesman said “there is no indication” that there was a breach of any “sensitive personally identifiable information.”
Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association National President Nathan Catura issued a statement calling the hack an act of terrorism. “This series of hacks targeting various federal agencies has evolved from a troubling matter to a lethal threat,” Catura said. “The government’s leisurely reaction to these cyber incidents continues to put the personal information of federal employees in jeopardy, particularly those with high-level security access.”
On the Twitter account that released the data, the perpetrator expressed support for Palestine. In October, alleged teen hackers acting on the same motivation breached Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan’s personal email account. The same group has also hacked accounts belonging to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and a variety of other high-level officials. It is unclear if there is any connection to the latest incident.
