The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, announced Friday that it suffered a cyberattack earlier this week.
People familiar with the cyberattack told TechCrunch that Heritage is working to remediate the cyberattack, but it's not immediately clear what, if any, data was stolen.
Politico, which first reported news of the cyberattack on Friday, said Heritage officials said it had “shut down its network to prevent further malicious activity while we investigate the incident.”
The news organization cited Heritage officials as saying the cyberattack was likely the work of state hackers, but provided no evidence for that claim.
Heritage spokesperson Noah Weinrich declined to comment when contacted via email on Thursday, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by TechCrunch on Friday.
Founded in 1973, Heritage is based in Washington, D.C., and supports and lobbies on conservative issues. This foundation has great influence on Republican politics. Think tanks are often targeted by foreign cyberattacks and state-sponsored espionage because of their ties to government and policymaking, and many are staffed by former U.S. government officials.
Heritage suffered a cyberattack in 2015, when hackers stole internal emails and donor personal information.