Federal officials enlisted cybersecurity firm ZeroFox to issue takedown demands that successfully prompted a domain registrar to disable a searchable database of the exposed records. Bluesky responded to the breach by classifying outbound links to DDoSecrets as malicious under its platform rules. Transparency advocates maintain the files merely contain professional contact details necessary for submitting public records requests. Despite official removal efforts, a locally hostable version of the dataset remains available for offline use.
Key points
Bluesky enforces community guidelines by restricting web domains hosting leaked records r…: Bluesky enforces community guidelines by restricting web domains hosting leaked records rather than purging individual user accounts.
The Department of Homeland Security is actively utilizing private security vendors to pur…: The Department of Homeland Security is actively utilizing private security vendors to pursue widespread online removals of exposed personnel data.
Transparency advocates argue that government employee business contact details should rem…: Transparency advocates argue that government employee business contact details should remain accessible to facilitate public information requests.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
Following a sizable leak of personnel data about employees who work for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, social network Bluesky is now blocking its users from accessing a nonprofit’s website that hosts the leaked data.
Users reported that the links to nonprofit transparency collective DDoSecrets were marked as “malicious” soon after TechCrunch and other media outlets broke the news that Homeland Security had been hacked.
TechCrunch reported on Wednesday that a hacker obtained over 40,000 user account records from Homeland Security’s login system, including the names and contact information, such as work-issued phone numbers and email addresses, of employees and agents working for its various agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The data included information that was similar to that on an employee’s business card. DDoSecrets, which publishes leaked data sets in the public interest, also made the hacked data publicly available. Researchers who are investigating abuses by the Trump administration say that the data will be invaluable for seeking records from the government under public access laws.
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