A group of hacktivists calling themselves the “Department of Peace” claimed to have breached the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), leaking allegedly stolen documents online.
On Sunday, the nonprofit transparency collective DDoSecrets published data related to contracts between DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and more than 6,000 companies, including defense contractors Anduril, L3Harris, Raytheon, surveillance provider Palantir, and tech giants Microsoft and Oracle.
The hacktivist said the data came from the Office of Industrial Cooperationa unit within DHS that procures technology from the private sector.
DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Department of Peace explained their motivations in a document alongside the hack, citing the recent killings of two peaceful protesters, US citizens Alex Pretti and Renée Good, earlier this year in Minneapolis by federal agents.
“Why hack DHS? I can think of a few GOOD reasons! I’m posting this because DHS is killing us and people deserve to know what companies support them and what they’re working on,” the hackers wrote.
Since the beginning of the Trump administration, DHS and federal immigration agents with ICE have undertaken a campaign of mass deportations, arresting people with largely no criminal records and holding them in overcrowded facilities where say the critics they are kept in inhumane conditions. The mass deportation campaign has been supported by many technology companies, with Palantir at the forefront.
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Security researcher Micah Lee organized the leaked data on a dedicated website, making the information easily searchable.
The website shows the name of the contractors, the amount of money they were awarded, and contact information such as full names, email addresses and phone numbers.
The largest contracts awarded included $70 million for Cyber Apex Solutions, a company that claims on its barebones website to “focus on closing critical infrastructure security gaps” in the US; and $59 million for Science Applications International Corporation, which provides AI services for government agencies. Underwriters Laboratories was awarded $29 million to provide testing, certification and market intelligence to clients.
Cyber Apex Solution, SAIC and Underwriters Laboratories did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
