Open letter to DOJ: Protect federal workers from doxing
Hi everyone,
Last Thursday, we sent a letter to DOJ leadership asking the Department to scale up and centralize its response to doxing. Specifically, we asked that DOJ create a centralized triage team to leverage and coordinate resources and the various offices tasked with addressing threats to employees. We also described 11 steps that we believe the triage team could take to better protect the workforce. We sent the letter now because experts believe that this already serious problem could get much worse soon.
Politico broke the story about our letter. Soon after, other media outlets covered it (GovExec and Federal News Network among them), and the Washington Post wrote about the letter in a front-page story over the weekend. The Post reported that in response to a request for comment, a “DOJ spokesperson said that the agency takes employee security seriously and encourages workers to report any perceived threats to management.” (NOTE: Although the Washington Post indicated that our letter cited to a specific online watchlist that’s targeting DOJ and DHS employees, it did not. We tried to avoid giving that watchlist any more attention than it’s already received.)
A million thanks to our friend and DOJ GEN member Jay Sinha for the amazing amount of time and expertise he contributed to this effort. Thank you also to the little working group that formed to get this done so quickly, and to others who know their s*!@ and provided helpful feedback.
We’re also grateful to everyone who sent us emails describing DOJ-related instances of doxing and other online threats, some of which are harrowing. These stories helped inform the letter and will assist us as we continue pressuring leadership to step up its response. We still encourage anyone with personal stories to send them to send them to dojgenderequalitynetwork@gmail.com; we’ll do everything we can to protect your identity.
We’ll update you about any new measures we learn the Department will take. In the meantime, you’ll find some resources in footnote 12 of our letter that may help protect you from doxing and other online threats. A member also shared with us that certain FEHB vision and dental plans cover, or partially subsidize, commercial identity protection services. We’re looking into this because Open Season is around the corner.
We’ll be in touch soon.
Take care,
Stacey