Secret intelligence information from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was made publicly available to thousands of users, including representatives of the private sector and citizens of other countries. The cause of the massive leak was a critical error in the code of one of the department’s online platforms.
According to an internal document that became public, the incident occurred as early as 2023. For three months – from March to May – users of the DHS Intelligence and Analysis Office platform were able to view reports on hacker attacks, disinformation campaigns by other states, as well as data on protest movements within the United States.
During this period, 1,525 cases of unauthorized access to the closed database were recorded. It was established that the information was viewed 518 times by representatives of private companies, and 46 times by foreign citizens.
The DHS itself confirmed the fact of the incident, but stated that the error was promptly corrected. According to them, after a thorough check, the supervisory authorities concluded that there was no “any significant or serious security breach”.
