GoKawiilA user on Quizlet, an online learning platform, created a public flashcard set in February that appears to have exposed highly confidential information about security procedures in US Customs and Border Protection facilities around Kingsville, Texas.
The Quizlet set, titled “USBP Review,” was available to the public until March 20, when it was made private less than half an hour after WIRED messaged a phone number potentially linked to the Quizlet user. Though an individual with the user’s name was listed at an address of an apartment less than a mile from a Kingsville CBP facility, WIRED has not been able to verify that the flashcard set was created by an active CBP agent or contractor.
“This incident is being reviewed by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility,” a CBP spokesperson wrote in a statement to WIRED. “We will not be getting ahead of this review. A review should not be taken as an indication of wrongdoing.”
The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment.
If the Quizlet set was created by an individual associated with CBP, it represents a serious breach in security for an agency created to “safeguard the American homeland.”
The public Quizlet set contained information about alleged codes for specific facility entrances. “Checkpoint doors code?” asked one card, with a specific four-digit combination listed in response. Another asks for the code of a specific gate at the facility, again with an exact combination listed as the answer. Two other gate codes were described in this manner, but WIRED is not using the gate names, because it is unclear if they are confidential.