Hackers are taking credit for breaching a government website in Texas on Friday in retaliation for the state’s stance on gender-affirming care.
In a post on Telegram, the hacker group, known as SiegedSec, claimed it stole roughly 500,000 files from a website affliated with the city of Forth Worth.
“We have decided to make a message towards the U.S government,” the group wrote. “Texas happens to be one of the largest states banning gender affirming care and for that, we have made Texas our target. Fuck the government.”
Among the files, which the hackers have made available for download, include work orders, employee lists, invoices, police reports, emails, and internal documents.
In a statement on the matter, city officials confirmed the breach but said it had affected an internal system used to track work orders and not the website for the city, according to Fox 4 Dallas.
Kevin Gunn, Fort Worth’s IT Solutions Director, asserted during a news conference on Saturday that none of the information taken by SiegedSec is considered sensitive.
“Those attachments include things like photographs, spreadsheets, invoices for work performed, PDF documents, emails between staff, and other information related to work orders,” Gunn said. “No indication that any other systems were accessed, nor any other evidence of sensitive information such as social security or banking information was accessed or released.”
SiegedSec claims that it was able to gain access to the system after obtaining login credentials from a city employee. The Daily Dot attempted to reach SiegedSec over email but did not receive a reply by press time.
The hack comes just weeks after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a bill banning transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care.
SiegedSec also carried out similar attacks against local governments in Arkansas and Kentucky last year in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
It’s unclear why Fort Worth specifically may have been targeted.
Update 10:17am CT, June 27: In a statement to the Daily Dot, YourAnonWolf, a prominent member of the hacking group, said that Fort Worth was just one local government of many that it intends to target.
“We targeted Fort Worth mostly because it was a vulnerable target in a list we had, we were checking any government domain associated with Texas,” the hacker said. “This is the start of a campaign against all states banning gender-affirming care, we have a few more attacks planned soon.”
