The Heritage Foundation Details

    Organization Logo

    The Heritage Foundation

    Washington, D.C.300 employees • Civil Society and Non-Profits

    https://www.heritage.org/
    United States

    Industry

    Civil Society and Non-Profits

    Security Incidents

    1

    The Heritage Foundation is a prominent American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, and Joseph Coors, the organization aims to promote conservative public policies based on principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. Its primary purpose is to conduct research and formulate policy recommendations that align with these ideals.

    Over the years, the Heritage Foundation has played a significant role in shaping U.S. public policy, particularly during th...
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    Security Incidents

    The Heritage Foundation Breach of Jul 2024
    Severity Score
    Moderate to Significant

    Type

    Data Breach

    Summary

    On July 2, 2024, the hacktivist group SiegedSec targeted The Heritage Foundation, releasing two gigabytes of internal data from the conservative think tank. This leak contained sensitive information such as full names, email addresses, passwords, and usernames associated with the organization, including users with U.S. government email addresses. SiegedSec claimed the attack was motivated by opposition to The Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" plans, which they alleged threatened the rights of LGBTQ+ and abortion healthcare.

    The Heritage Foundation, however, refuted the breach claims, sugge...
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    Severity

    The incident involving SiegedSec and The Heritage Foundation demonstrated significant elements relevant to cybersecurity professionals. The leak involved sensitive personal information and government-associated emails, posing a potential security risk and privacy breach. However, the impact is somewhat mitigated by claims that data was from a public-facing archive, suggesting limited internal system compromise. Given the socio-political motivations and subsequent quick disbandment of the attacking group, the incident holds moderate to significant severity.

    On a scale of 1 to 10, this incident...
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    Impact

    The cyber incident involving The Heritage Foundation was classified as a data breach. The breach resulted in the exposure of sensitive customer data, including the full names, email addresses, passwords, and usernames of individuals associated with the foundation. Notably, this data included users with U.S. government email addresses.

    No core systems or services of The Heritage Foundation were taken offline as a direct result of the breach, and there was no evidence of internal company data or intellectual property being stolen. However, given the nature of the exposed data, the incident has ...
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