A website that published the personal details of thousands of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents has been forced offline following a significant cyberattack its founder believes was orchestrated from Russia.
Sophisticated Attack Halts Publication of Sensitive Data
Dominick Skinner, a Netherlands-based immigration activist who runs the website known as ICE List, reported that the platform suffered a sustained and sophisticated Direct Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Tuesday evening. This type of cyber assault aims to overwhelm a website's servers with a flood of fake traffic, rendering it inaccessible to genuine users.
Skinner told The Daily Beast that a massive volume of internet traffic, much of it appearing to originate from Russian IP addresses, targeted the site. The attack coincided with his plans to publicly release a dataset containing the personal information of approximately 4,500 immigration personnel. This data, allegedly provided by a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) whistleblower following the shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis, included names, email addresses, phone numbers, and job titles.
DHS Condemns "Disgusting Doxxing" as Threats Soar
The US government has vehemently condemned Skinner's actions. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin labelled the website a "disgusting doxxing of our officers" that places their lives and families in grave danger. She highlighted a staggering 1,300 percent increase in assaults and an 8,000 percent rise in death threats against law enforcement personnel.
"Their families are being threatened. We will not back down. Anyone who doxxes our officers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," McLaughlin warned. However, because ICE List is hosted in the Netherlands, US authorities have limited power to take it down directly.
Activist Vows Resilience Amidst Ongoing Cyber Threats
Despite the successful takedown, Skinner remains defiant. He stated that the attack, which utilised proxies to mask its true source, demonstrated a high level of sophistication due to its duration. He interpreted the assault as evidence that powerful entities do not want the identities of ICE and Border Patrol agents made public.
"But it just makes us more determined," Skinner said, linking the motivation for the attack to the agencies' increasingly negative public perception. While his team has DDoS protection measures in place, he acknowledged such attacks are difficult to prevent entirely and warned that further incidents are likely.
Skinner had previously indicated he intended to publish a "majority" of the names from the leaked dataset, though he planned to make exceptions for personnel working in childcare or nursing roles.
