Political hackers strike City of Fort Worth, in protest at anti-trans legislation

The city of Fort Worth in Texas announced on Saturday that it had suffered a security breach that saw hackers claim to have gained unauthorised access to data.

The hacking group SiegedSec posted that they had accessed "roughly 500k" files including "work orders, employee lists, invoices, police reports, emails between employees/contractors, internal documents, camera footage, and lots, lots, lots more."

Kevin Gunn, IT Solutions Director for the City of Fort Worth, told reporters that he did not believe that the leaked information had not so far been assessed to be sensitive in nature.

"By and large, it’s information that we would release through a public information act request," Gunn said.

When
asked by the media why the hackers would want to steal such information, Gunn gave a succinct reply:

"[It] alludes to, basically, embarrassing the city and making a political statement."

Because it doesn't appear, for now at least, that the hackers are attempting to extort a ransom from the city.

Instead SiegedSec, who describe themselves on their Telegram channel as "gay furry hackers", says that it has decided to target Texas as it is "one of the largest states banning gender affirming care."

Earlier this month, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott made headlines after controversially signing legislation banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths.

Part of the message posted by SiegedSec on its Telegram channel made  clear that the group was not afraid of being hunted down by law-enforcement agencies:

Now you may think, "SiegedSec! What will you do about the F.B.I???" And to that we say, "GOOD LUCK, WE'RE BEHIND 7 PROXIES!"

The hacking group is no stranger to choosing its targets for political reasons rather than financial.

For instance, last year it claimed to have stolen files from the servers of Kentucky's and Arkansas' government servers, protesting that the states were denying access to abortion.