The Department of Homeland Security is said to be investigating a breach of a platform used by federal, state and local governments and law enforcement agencies to share information, and one senior lawmaker warned that the leak could jeopardize national security.
News sites Nextgov and Bleeping Computer, which first reported the incident, report that DHS officials are investigating a cyberattack on the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN). The HSIN enables government agencies and local authorities to plan, coordinate and share information about major events and respond to emergencies.
Nextgov reports that hackers breached HSIN servers in late May and early June and may have compromised information shared using the platform.
Bleeping Computer quoted a DHS spokesperson as saying the department is “aware of recent cyber incidents involving certain unclassified traditional information sharing environments.”
It's unclear what or how much data was stolen, and a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment on the incident. A previously reported security lapse in 2023 revealed that HSIN contained personal information shared between law enforcement agencies in connection with the surveillance of Americans.
The incidents involving HSIN are drawing new scrutiny on the government's ability to protect the cybersecurity of its own systems, following more than a year of deep cuts under the Trump administration across the federal government, including the Department of Homeland Security and its cybersecurity agency, CISA.
Although the information shared through the HSIN is not classified, the information is “so sensitive that its disclosure would jeopardize national security,” Mark Warner, a Democratic senator representing Virginia and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.
Warner said the HSIN platform supports the current World Cup competition in the United States and was also used last year to manage the response to the mid-air collision between an American Airlines jetliner and a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter over Washington, D.C., which killed 67 people.
Although the identity, affiliation, and motivations of the hackers who targeted HSIN are unknown, the breach represents the latest security flaw to impact the federal government over the past year.
Since the Trump administration took office in January 2025, the federal government has been plagued by several major cybersecurity breaches. These include the sharing of classified information and war plans around apps such as Signal, which are not authorized for government use, raids on federal databases of Americans' personal information by members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and reports of mass password and credential leaks by CISA contractors. Opened access to government cloud systems.
Earlier this year, the FBI informed members of Congress that they needed to declare a “major cyber incident” because the disclosure of a target's phone number under surveillance by federal agents could potentially give adversaries an advantage.
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