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Self-proclaimed “gay furry hackers” announce retirement, but not before releasing chat logs of an online conversation with the Heritage Foundation’s executive director, Mike Howell.
OK, buckle in because this one’s a wild ride.
Days after announcing it had successfully hacked the Heritage Foundation – a conservative US think tank responsible for Project 2025, a plan for a future Trump presidency focused on overturning progressive laws – the SiegedSec hacking collective has announced it is disbanding.
However, in between announcing the hack and today’s disbanding announcement, SiegedSec has not only gotten a lot of press – anyone who self-identifies as “gay furry hackers” will look good in a headline – but it also got into an online argument with the Heritage Foundation’s executive director, Mike Howell.
But, as a last hurrah of sorts, SiegedSec released the complete chat logs of the rather confrontational conversation.
Where it started
SiegedSec – which has recently targeted Israel, NATO, and Amplify AI – announced the Heritage Foundation hack on 10 July, saying on its Telegram channel: “We hacked The Heritage Foundation (holy moly!!!).”
“The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank in America, among the most influential public policy organisations. This organisation is responsible for leading Project 2025, an authoritarian Christian nationalist plan to reform the United States government.”
SiegedSec explained its motives, saying: “Project 2025 threatens the rights of abortion healthcare and LGBTQ+ communities in particular. So of course, we won’t stand for that!”
The collective said that it had acquired more than 200 gigabytes of “mostly useless” data, but it did access the foundation’s database, complete with “user data, logs, and other juicy info”.
SiegedSec then invited the Heritage Foundation to make contact – which Howell apparently couldn’t resist.
“Mike Howell reached out to us, at first to ask questions to understand our motives and why we breached his organisation,” SiegedSec said in an 11 July post. “Then, he proceeded to throw insults, threats, and claimed our existence was against nature.”
“We tried answering things in a way to hopefully help him understand. But as his insults grew, so did our impatience. So we are releasing all of our chat logs with Mike Howell.”
How it’s going
The chat logs back up SiegedSec’s claims. Howell referred to the collective as “degenerate perverts” and threatened to out them to the public. After an exchange where Howell threatened the SiegedSec member – named vio – he was talking to with “getting pounded in the *** in the federal prison I put you in next year,” vio asked if Howell would mind if the conversation were shared publicly.
“Please share widely,” Howell replied. “I hope the word spreads as fast as the STDs do in your degenerate furry community.”
When a staff writer with the Daily Dot then shared the chat log on X, along with the news that the collective was disbanding, Howell retweeted the post, claiming “COMPLETE AND TOTAL VICTORY”.
“I have forced the Gay Furry Hackers to DISBAND,” Howell said, more or less confirming that the chat logs are, in fact, accurate.
As to SiegedSec’s decision to disband, the collective said it was a planned move.
“Yes this is a sudden announcement, we planned to disband later today or tomorrow, but given the circumstances, I believe it’s best we do so now. For our own mental health, the stress of mass publicity, and to avoid the eye of the FBI,” SiegedSec said.
“I’ve been considering quitting cyber crime lately, and the other members have agreed it’s time to let SiegedSec rest for good.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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