In the USA, one of the largest nuclear laboratories was attacked by hackers. They identify themselves as “gay furries” and advocate for the research of “catgirls.” The whole story sounds not only bizarre, but it truly is.
The Idaho National Laboratory (INL), one of the largest nuclear labs in the USA, was hacked by the group Sieged Security (SiegeSec). The hackers call themselves “gay furry hackers.” And no, it’s not April 1st today, but rather the end of November.
What was stolen? The hackers are said to have posted a selection of the stolen data online and are now threatening to release large amounts of employee data if the laboratory does not agree to a strange deal:
We are ready to make a deal with INL; if they research the creation of IRL catgirls, we will delete this post.
Allegedly, the hackers stole thousands of records, including full names of employees, birth dates, email addresses, social security numbers, employment information, and more.
The colleagues from TheRegister have reportedly verified the first dataset and contacted employees. They found it to match the employees. The hack is therefore taken seriously by security authorities in the USA.
A reference to a meme and strange demands
What’s this all about? Those who are looking confused and wondering what this strange offer is all about are not alone. According to PCGamer, it stems from an old meme about furry animals creating a breed of sexy human-mutant cats. Many find it quite unlikely that the message is genuinely from “gay furry hackers.”
The reasons for the hack remain questionable and quite opaque. When asked why they attacked the INL, the hackers merely stated (via PCGamer.com): “We are cats, subtleties like the ‘why’ don’t matter to us.”
They also added that the INL “was not targeted for its involvement in combating climate change,” but instead named involvement in nuclear power plants, vehicle testing, bioenergy, robotics, and nuclear waste processing as an issue.
What’s next? Whether there will be real demands coming in the near or distant future, as one is accustomed to from hackers, is unknown. Because often hackers demand large sums of Bitcoin for valuable data or demand a lot of money to release patients’ health data.
Some see the whole action merely as a bad joke and believe that it’s just a few bored kids behind it. Just like in one of the last major data breaches at Microsoft, Nvidia, and others, which was also allegedly caused by a 16-year-old.
16-Year-Old Lives with Mom, Allegedly Hacks the Biggest Tech Giants in the World
