An Icelandic web company, FlokiNET, has defended the data’s publication as satisfying a ‘legitimate’ public interest.
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has asked an Icelandic web hosting company to take down a site with information about tens of thousands of its employees.
On Thursday, the Icelandic company FlokiNET posted a letter it received from the cybersecurity firm ZeroFox, on behalf of DHS.
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The letter accused FlokiNET of violating its terms of service by publishing a “stolen” employee dataset and asked it to “remove or disable” the information.
“The content is live and places more than ۴۰,۰۰۰ identifiable individuals at risk of harassment, stalking, and physical harm,” the letter said.
FlokiNET said the letter concerned one domain, icepi.cx, which has compiled information about employees from a range of DHS agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Those agencies have come under intense scrutiny since the start of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign in ۲۰۲۵.
But the Trump administration has often refused to identify DHS agents involved in specific operations, citing safety risks.
Though FlokiNET said it refused to comply with DHS’s request, it noted that the website’s registrar ultimately suspended the domain. The employee information has since moved to a different domain.
In a statement posted online, FlokiNET defended its decision not to remove the site.
“Federal officers carrying out an enforcement programme are not private individuals while they are carrying it out,” the company said. “The public has a legitimate interest in knowing who is doing that work, under whose authority, and in which office.”
The database was first posted online on Wednesday by Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), a group that showcases leaked government data.
In the past, DDoSecrets has released emails from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as information from the Israeli Ministry of Justice and police departments in the US.
A hacker group calling itself the “Department of Peace” has claimed responsibility for obtaining and sharing the DHS data.
Since the database was first published, other groups have spread the information elsewhere, including on sites like icepi.cx. As a result, the information is unlikely to be entirely scrubbed from the internet.
The Trump administration, however, has taken an aggressive approach to online platforms purporting to contain information about ICE employees and other agents involved in immigration operations.
Last year, for instance, the US Department of Justice pressured tech giants like Apple to remove apps that track ICE agents, including one called ICEBlock.
The move sparked backlash from Democrats and free-speech advocates, who argued that the public has a right to report on ICE’s movements.
“Blocking access to these apps at the request of the federal government raises the distinct possibility that Apple is working with government to violate its customers’ First Amendment right to record and report on the activities of their government,” Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin wrote in a letter last year, asking Apple to review its decision.
Immigration agents, meanwhile, have taken several steps to conceal their identities during operations, including wearing face masks or street clothes.
That lack of transparency has spurred criticism from human rights groups and immigration advocates, who argue that they have little recourse to pursue allegations of excessive force or impropriety during ICE raids.
Since Trump was sworn in for a second term, at least ۲۵ people have faced gunfire from immigration agents. Six of the shootings have resulted in deaths.
Other cases have involved alleged violations of civil liberties – including unlawful arrests and racial profiling – as well as controversial tactics like car ramming and tackling.
