SiegedSec, a group of gay furry hackers, has hit a US nuclear lab in Idaho, purportedly in response to legislation prohibiting “gender-affirming” surgical procedures.
The US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, a center for nuclear research, announced on Wednesday that it had experienced a “massive data breach” on Sunday night. SiegedSec, a group of “gay furry hackers,” has taken ownership of the incident.
The data thieves published employee addresses, Social Security numbers, bank account details, and other private information online, local media reported.
A lab representative informed the publication Endgadget on Wednesday that the intrusion occurred “in a federally approved vendor system” that “supports INL cloud Human Resources services,” and the lab took “immediate action to protect employee data.”
INL is situated in Idaho Falls, a town in the eastern region of the state with over 67,000 population. It works on nuclear reactor research and sustainable energy programs for the federal government, employing about 5,000 people.
A spokesperson has confirmed that hackers from the Russia-linked extortion group Cl0p are demanding a ransom from the U.S. Energy Department.
The suspected hackers were first unidentified by the local media, but ultimately a group going by the moniker SiegedSec claimed responsibility and shared some of the stolen data on social media.
“We’re willing to make a deal with INL. If they research creating irl catgirls we will take down this post,” SiegedSec wrote in a message announcing the leak on Monday.
In certain Japanese anime and manga, a character known as a “catgirl” is a human girl who has cat ears, tails, or other features. “In real life” is what “IRL” refers to. A group of homosexual “furry” hackers, SiegedSec identified themselves by referencing the fetish of anthropomorphic animals.
The group has taken credit for the early October leak of hundreds of NATO papers and the June hacking of many US state governments, purportedly in response to legislation prohibiting “gender-affirming” surgical procedures, or “sex change operations.” That time, SiegedSec claimed to have breached Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and South Carolina in addition to leaking almost 180 terabytes of data from Texas alone.