Data Breach Credit Claimed by 'Gay Furry Hacker' Group Demanding 'IRL Cat Girls'

A hacker group claiming to be made up of "gay furries" has taken credit for a data breach affecting a "nuclear research hub" in Idaho. The group says they want "IRL (in real life) cat girls".

The demand marks a departure from the usual demands of the group, which calls itself SiegedSec. Engadget recalls that SiegedSec typically "attacks government and affiliated organizations for political reasons, like targeting state governments for passing anti-trans legislation earlier this year."

The group "claimed they accessed sensitive employee data like social security numbers, home addresses and more" from "nuclear research hub Idaho National Laboratory (INL)," which "confirmed that it fell victim to a data breach" earlier this week, Engadget detailed.

In a post taking credit for the cyberattack, SiegeSec declared, "We're willing to make a deal with INL. If they research creating irl catgirls we will take down this post."

While it's not entirely clear what the group means in demanding research into "creating irl catgirls," one possible interpretation is that they believe it to be possible to combine human and feline DNA, thus creating people with catlike characteristics. In popular fiction, Jessica Alba portrayed such a hybrid – or "chimera" – in the 2000-2002 television series "Dark Angel," in which the DNA of Alba's character was enhanced with genes sourced from cats, giving her superior physical prowess (but without noticeably feline characteristics such as fur, claws, or pointed ears).

As previously reported SiegeSec last summer hacked into a number of "state and local agencies," as per UK newspaper the Guardian, in a campaign that accessed "South Carolina police files, a list of licensed therapists in Texas and contact details for court officials in Nebraska."

Furries, the Guardian explained, "are a subculture united by passion for anthropomorphism" – in other words, depictions of animals that are portrayed as speaking and acting like people.

Furries have long been associated with sexual fetishes, but, as Vox noted in a 2015 account, that erroneous image does not apply to the majority of furries, many of whom don't even own full costumes – though some (still a minority) might use a fake tail as a fashion accessory.

But the mistaken impression that furries are all about kink found its way into anti-trans politics when some Republican officials began whipping up fury toward schools and trans students by insisting, falsely, that students who identified as cats were using litter boxes at school instead of restrooms.