CBP Facility Codes Leaked via Online Flashcards
CBP Facility Codes Leaked via Online Flashcards 🚨
A 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.
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.” A CBP spokesperson stated, “This incident is being reviewed by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility.” The spokesperson added, “We will not be getting ahead of this review. A review should not be taken as an indication of wrongdoing.”
The public Quizlet set contained information about alleged codes for specific facility entrances. For example, “Checkpoint doors code?” asked one card, with a specific four-digit combination listed in response. Another card asked for the code of a specific gate at the facility, again with an exact combination listed as the answer. Additionally, another series of cards described certain immigration offenses and related federal charges, including misuse of a passport, fraud or misuse of a visa, and fleeing from a checkpoint.
Cards about voluntary return to countries outside the US, expedited removal, and warrant of removal described forms that needed to be filled out and then offered a reminder about a checklist on something called an “agents Resources Page” to ensure “accuracy of all above.”
Further details exposed included the Kingsville workforce’s 1,932-square-mile area of responsibility, including the six county lines, and the agency’s internal grid and zone organizational system. Another card named the 11 CBP “towers” in the area. The last card detailed an apparent internal system, “E3 BEST,” that allows officers to “record, investigate and adjudicate secondary referrals at USBP checkpoints” by allowing them to “query subjects and vehicles simultaneously through multiple law enforcement databases and create e3 Events for referrals resulting in an arrest.”
This potential exposure of confidential information comes amid a rapid hiring surge at CBP, with up to $60,000 in recruitment and retention incentives available to some new agents.