Anti-LGBTQ+ leader rages at gay furries who hacked his org’s website

Yesterday, “gay furry hacker” group SiegedSec released a conversation held between one of their members, named “vio,” and Mike Howell, executive director of the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, following a hack on the foundation. The conversation shows Howell insulting the hackers as “degenerate perverts” and threatening to throw them in federal prison where they would be raped.

“God created nature, and nature’s laws are vicious.  It is why you have to put on a perverted animal costume to satisfy your sexual deviances. It is why you are forced to hide like a coward,” Howell said. “You violated our rights and broke the law.”

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Howell’s comment came after hackers published data from a two-gigabyte leak yesterday that revealed sensitive data of commenters on the Heritage Foundation’s sister website, The Daily Signal. The hack occurred as part of a “#OpTransRights” campaign targeting notable anti-trans organizations and individuals. The hackers targeted the Heritage Foundation because of Project 2025, a far-reaching plan to establish extremist right-wing policies if former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.

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Howell is a former Trump administration official who served in the Department of Homeland Security. The Heritage Oversight Project is generally focused on border security, foreign policy, and elections.

SiegedSec said to Daily Dot, “Mike Howell reached out to us, at first to ask questions to understand our motives and why we breached his organization. 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. we are releasing all of our chat logs with Mike Howell, we have an extra surprise for him coming soon,” the group added.

The publicly posted conversation showed Howell initially reaching out to understand SiegedSec’s motivations.

vio responded, “We want to make a message and shine light on who exactly supports the heritage foundation. we dont want anything more than that, not money and not fame. we’re strongly against Project 2025 and everything the heritage foundation stands for.”

Howell replied, “That’s why you hacked us? Just for that?”

vio wrote, “yes. it should be obvious thats all we want based on our history as a hacktivist group, we dont seek money.”

It was then that the texts took a sharp U-Turn.

Howell said, “Ok listen to me closely. We are in the process of identifying and outting members of your group. Reputations and lives will be destroyed. Closeted Furries will be presented to the world for the degenerate perverts they are. You cannot hide. Your means are miniscule compared to mine. You now can either turn yourself in or you can cooperate.”

vio replied, “none of our members will be identified or outted by your organisation built on hatred. the only ones deserving of a destroyed life are those within your organisation. you want me to cooperate? with what, spreading misinformation and hatred? we wont turn against our own people.”

The conversation then turned into repeated threats and wishes for harm by Howell.

“Your own people turned against nature.  We will only accelerate the cycle. God created nature, and nature’s laws are vicious. It is why you have to put on a perverted animal costume to satisfy your sexual deviances.  It is why you are forced to hide like a coward. You violated our rights and broke the law.  You have no standing to discuss such matters,” Howell wrote.

However, the SiegedSec member kept up with responses to Howell’s approach. “the rights your org violates will be 10x worse than any crime ive committed. you do not follow god if you use religion as a crutch to hate people. while i hide behind a screen to fight for my rights, you hide behind religion to attack the rights of others.”

Howell continued by saying, “Are you aware that you won’t be able to wear a furry tiger costume when you’re getting pounded in the a** in the federal prison I put you in next year?”

After this, he gave consent for the conversation to be shared widely, saying that he hopes “the word spreads as fast as the STDs do in your degenerate furry community.” Howell added, “Bestiality is a weird sin. It shows you’ve gone a “few clicks” too far in trying to satiate your deviant appetite.”

There is no evidence that members of SiegedSec are proponents of bestiality. In fact, many furries use “fursonas” as alter egos for creative expression rather than for sexual gratification, according to a 2019 study.

Howlle concluded by threatening vio with publicly available information regarding her Bitcoin address, saying that he was working with the FBI on a “2702 order,” referring to an administrative subpoena.

Daily Dot reporter Mikael Thalen also verified the legitimacy of these messages in an X exchange with Howell, where he falsely accused the reporter of being involved with SiegedSec.

We can talk here. I'm aware of your participation in the sexually deviant "Furry" group's hack.

Looping in @FBI as well

Feel free to ask any questions publicly

— Mike Howell (@MHowellTweets) July 10, 2024

Yah that's me. For sure.

— Mike Howell (@MHowellTweets) July 10, 2024

Also yesterday, SiegedSec announced that it would be disbanding. According to reporter Ryan Fae, who was in contact with the group prior to the public nature of the Heritage leaks, members had announced privately the intent to disband in the weeks prior to the announcement.

in case it's not obvious, no, mike howell of the heritage foundation did not force SiegedSec to disband. he's just a bigot.
vio told me about her intention to close SiegedSec back on july 27 via disappearing messages on signal. she also repeated it yesterday on discord. https://t.co/0pkJQcMqpM pic.twitter.com/27giGgLok4

— ryan fae (@RhinozzCode) July 11, 2024

correction on original tweet: june 27!

— ryan fae (@RhinozzCode) July 11, 2024

LGBTQ Nation was able to confirm that SiegedSec had alluded to a big announcement pertaining to the future of their group in their Telegram post announcing this hack, prior to any public backlash.

“I’ve been considering quitting cybercrime lately, and the other members have agreed its time to let SiegedSec rest for good,” said vio on their Telegram. “In the past, I have tried quitting cybercrime a few times, and I’ve always been unable to fully quit. This time, hopefully I am able to stay away from it for my own wellbeing. We may not be a cybercriminal group anymore, but we will always [be] hackers and always fighting for the rights of others.”

The Heritage Foundation claimed on Thursday that it hadn’t been hacked, and that the hackers only accessed public available information that existed somewhere outside of the foundation’s domain.

However, vio told The Verge they “completely expected” Heritage to deny that it had been hacked.

“Many companies try denial to save face,” vio said. “The server we hacked was linked to The Daily Signal, and the server was named ‘first-heritage-foundation’. Clearly, Heritage was genuinely hacked. Mike’s threats and insults showed anger that confirmed what Heritage denied.”

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