Top US conservative thinktank hit by cyberattack — Heritage Foundation hit once again

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Heritage Foundation hit by another cyberattack

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Top US conservative thinktank, The Heritage Foundation, has said that it was struck by a cyberattack.

An official at the thinktank told Politico, which first broke the news, that in order to mitigate the threat, the organization “shut down its network to prevent any further malicious activity while we investigate the incident.”

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Possible nation state attack?

The Heritage Foundation places great importance on the threat posed by nation state cyber attacks, and having suffered an attack in 2015 that stole emails and personal details of its donors, it is unsurprising that the organization’s first suspect is a state-sponsored actor.

Think tanks are a lucrative target for nation state cyber attacks thanks to the donations they handle, and their influence on policy making in the US. Moreover, many former US administration officials have progressed  working at thinktanks, with former vice-president Mike Pence working as a distinguished visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation following Trump’s unsuccessful re-election in 2021.

The US government has already suffered a number of cyber attacks targeting federal agencies and government contractors in 2024, with the recent spate of Ivanti vulnerabilities associated with its Endpoint Management Software and its Connect Secure application.

Microsoft security vulnerabilities are also giving state-sponsored hackers a significant advantage in accessing confidential personal information among other data, with several federal agencies having emails stolen from the accounts of US officials by MidnightBlizzard, also tracked at APT29.

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Benedict Collins
Benedict Collins
Senior Writer, Security

Benedict is a Senior Security Writer at TechRadar Pro, where he has specialized in covering the intersection of geopolitics, cyber-warfare, and business security.

Benedict provides detailed analysis on state-sponsored threat actors, APT groups, and the protection of critical national infrastructure, with his reporting bridging the gap between technical threat intelligence and B2B security strategy.

Benedict holds an MA (Distinction) in Security, Intelligence, and Diplomacy from the University of Buckingham Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS), with his specialization providing him with a robust academic framework for deconstructing complex international conflicts and intelligence operations, and the ability to translate intricate security data into actionable insights.