The pressure is increasing. A group of hackers, already responsible for the data leak of hundreds of officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Authority, claimed to have compiled files on tens of thousands of US officials, including employees of the NSA, the US security agency, particularly in charge of cyber intelligence.
According to a member of the group interviewed by 404 Media, this information came from “stolen caches of Salesforce customer data” and was partially corroborated by the media. The data also includes officials from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as members of the United States Air Force and other agencies.
The previous attack had already targeted federal institutions. The victims included nearly 700 Department of Homeland Security employees, 170 FBI email addresses, and 190 Department of Justice agents. The documents, distributed on a Telegram channel, contained sensitive information such as names, email addresses, phone numbers and, in some cases, residential addresses.
More than 22,000 officials from various organizations
The hacker group “Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters”, which brings together three notorious entities (Scattered Spider, LAPSUS$ and ShinyHunters), declared to have extracted thousands of files from US government employees, including “more than 22,000 officials from various agencies”, according to US media. These groups bring together thousands of hackers on Discord and Telegram.
These posts were accompanied by messages such as “I want my MEXICO MONEY,” in reference to an unverified claim by authorities that Mexican cartels pay to obtain agent records.
This news comes in a tense climate on the other side of the Atlantic. More than seven million people demonstrated this weekend against the “authoritarian excesses” of President Donald Trump, while the protest also continues online. Its immigration policy, embodied by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), aims for one million expulsions per year and uses often heavy-handed methods, even in protected places such as schools, hospitals or churches.
Persistent tensions
More than 70% of those detained had no criminal record, prompting strong criticism for “their brutality” and fueling protests in several major cities, where the National Guard was deployed in response. The immigration authority also announced the creation of a team to monitor social media databases and other agencies 24/7 to strengthen its surveillance.
Faced with these practices, activists developed applications to track ICE actions, which have since been removed from the Apple App Store at the request of the Trump administration. Among them, ICEBlock, a participatory monitoring tool, had temporarily been one of the most downloaded applications. Another banned app, Eyes Up, allowed users to record and archive videos of ICE activities to hold agents accountable.
Source: BFM TV
