Feds probe apparent breach of FBI, DHS worker data

Federal officials are investigating an apparent breach of FBI and Department of Homeland Security employee information off a U.S. government system.

The hack – reportedly involving names, job titles and contact information for over 20,000 apparent FBI employees and over 9,000 apparent DHS employees – was first reported by Vice’s Motherboard. The report said the hacker plans to release the information.

A law enforcement source confirmed to Fox News that federal authorities are now looking into the matter – but it may only involve open-source material. The source described the stolen information as data that could be obtained by filing a Freedom of Information Act request.

“We take these reports very seriously, however there is no indication at this time that there is any breach of sensitive or personally identifiable information,” DHS said in a statement.

A Justice Department spokesman also said in a statement that this “unauthorized access” is under investigation but “there is no indication at this time that there is any breach of sensitive personally identifiable information.”

The incident comes after a hacking group said last week that it had accessed a trove of NASA data. But in that case as well, NASA said it had no evidence to indicate the information was anything other than already publicly available data.

Fox News’ Matthew Dean contributed to this report.