The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said that there were multiple instances of insider hacking at US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). A year-long investigation by the DHS Inspector General has found that employees had accessed management-level e-mail and other confidential files.

According to the report, employees and supervisors abused logon privileges, gained unauthorised access, and even allegedly altered audit logs to delete any record of their activities. The inspector general’s investigation focused on 17 individuals in particular, all of whom were information technology specialists. Investigators also found “hackware” on several computer drives – software that allows users to intercept sensitive information passing through the agency’s network.