There are two main types of hackers — black hat hackers who commit cyber crimes and white hat hackers who try to prevent them. But now there is a third group: gay furry hackers.
Yes, you read that correctly.
On November 20, a group of sefl-described "gay furry hackers" broke into the computer system of one of the largest nuclear laboratories in the country and stole the records of thousands of employees, reports The Register.
For those living under a rock — or who aren’t chronically online like we are — furries are united by a shared interest in anthropomorphic animals. Some furries also create their own animal characters called “fursonas” and make elaborate mascot-like costumes to wear.
While hacking into the Idaho National Laboratory sounds dastardly, the reason for the security breach is so much stranger than we ever could have imagined.
The hacktivist group, who have also reportedly broken into NATO, posted the information they stole on Telegram but said they would take it down for a price. "We're willing to make a deal with INL. If they research creating IRL catgirls we will take down this post," the group said, according to the publication.
Finding out what an “IRL catgirl” is took us down a rabbit hole we may never recover from. But essentially, the group is asking the nuclear lab to research how to genetically engineer anime-style female cat-human hybrids, which stems from a long-running meme.
Totally reasonable request.
Just in case this wasn’t clear: the INL is run by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and focuses its research on nuclear innovations, renewable energy systems, and security solutions, not genetically engineering animal-human hybrids.
The hacktivist group, also known as SiegedSec, bragged about their breach of the INL’s data in public posts, writing, “meow meow meow meow meow meow meow,” according to The Pink News.
Who knew the songwriter for the Meow Mix jingle had become a furry hacker?
After the hack was made public the group posted on social media, "Many people ask 'why?' for INL breach. We are cats, intricacies such as 'why' do not concern us," PC Gamer reported.
You gotta love their commitment to the bit.
