Trump administration attempts to take down leak of ICE personnel data

An Icelandic web company, FlokiNET, has defended the data’s publication as satisfying a ‘legitimate’ public interest.

Federal immigration officers patrol near the scene where 37-year-old Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 13, 2026 [File: John Locher/AP Photo]

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 40,000 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 2025.

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 25 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.

冰岛一家名为 FlokiNET 的网络公司辩称，发布这些数据是为了满足“合法”的公共利益。

2026年1月13日，在明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯市，联邦移民官员在37岁的蕾妮·古德被一名移民执法局特工枪杀的现场附近巡逻。[图片：John Locher/AP Photo]

美国国土安全部 (DHS) 已要求一家冰岛网络托管公司关闭一个包含其数万名员工信息的网站。

周四，冰岛公司 FlokiNET 发布了一封代表美国国土安全部 (DHS) 的网络安全公司 ZeroFox 发来的信函。

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该信函指责 FlokiNET 违反其服务条款，发布了“被盗”的员工数据集，并要求其“删除或禁用”该信息。

信中说：“这些内容是实时发布的，使超过 4 万名可识别身份的个人面临骚扰、跟踪和人身伤害的风险。”

FlokiNET 表示，这封信涉及一个名为 icepi.cx 的域名，该域名收集了来自多个国土安全部机构（包括移民和海关执法局 (ICE) 和海关与边境保护局 (CBP)）的员工信息。

自唐纳德·特朗普总统于 2025 年开始大规模驱逐出境以来，这些机构受到了密切关注。

但特朗普政府经常以安全风险为由，拒绝透露参与具体行动的国土安全部特工的身份。

尽管FlokiNET表示拒绝遵守国土安全部的要求，但该公司指出，网站注册商最终暂停了该域名。员工信息此后已转移到另一个域名。

FlokiNET 在网上发表声明，为其不移除该网站的决定辩护。

该公司表示：“执行执法行动的联邦官员并非普通公民。公众有权知道是谁在执行这项工作，在谁的授权下，以及在哪个部门任职。”

该数据库最初由“分布式秘密泄露”（DDoSecrets）组织于周三发布到网上，该组织专门展示泄露的政府数据。

过去，DDoSecrets 曾发布过被定罪的性犯罪者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的电子邮件，以及来自以色列司法部和美国警察部门的信息。

一个自称“和平部”的黑客组织声称对获取和泄露美国国土安全部数据负责。

自该数据库首次发布以来，其他团体已将信息传播到其他地方，包括像icepi.cx这样的网站上。因此，这些信息不太可能从互联网上完全清除。

然而，特朗普政府对声称包含有关美国移民及海关执法局 (ICE) 员工和其他参与移民行动的人员信息的在线平台采取了强硬态度。

例如，去年美国司法部向苹果等科技巨头施压，要求其删除追踪美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）特工的应用程序，其中包括一款名为 ICEBlock 的应用程序。

此举引发了民主党人和言论自由倡导者的强烈反对，他们认为公众有权报道美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）的行动。

“应联邦政府的要求阻止访问这些应用程序，这极有可能表明苹果公司正在与政府合作，侵犯其客户根据美国宪法第一修正案享有的记录和报道政府活动的权利，”民主党众议员杰米·拉斯金去年在一封信中写道，要求苹果公司重新审视其决定。

与此同时，移民执法人员采取了多项措施来掩盖他们在行动中的身份，包括佩戴口罩或穿着便服。

这种缺乏透明度的做法引发了人权组织和移民权益倡导者的批评，他们认为，对于移民执法局突袭行动中过度使用武力或不当行为的指控，他们几乎没有追究的途径。

自特朗普连任以来，至少有25人遭到移民执法人员的枪击，其中6人死亡。

其他案件涉及涉嫌侵犯公民自由——包括非法逮捕和种族歧视——以及汽车冲撞和擒抱等有争议的策略。