Where Peter Thiel’s secret network is placing blame for data leak
A week after it appeared to inadvertently expose its private information online, billionaire Peter Thiel’s secretive, invitation-only network of elites now claims the release was a malicious hack.
The organization, Dialog, also has demanded that Wired — one of the outlets that followed Straight Arrow’s reporting on the leak — hand over the exposed data.
What happened?
The incident began last Tuesday when Swiss security researcher and journalist maia arson crimew was alerted by a source to the code on Dialog’s website. Founded by Thiel and Silicon Valley investor Auren Hoffman, Dialog hosts annual off-the-record discussions among high-profile people from business, academia and politics.
The publicly accessible website code contained the names of 113 participants, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; Sarah Bond, the former president of Xbox at Microsoft ; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; and Hollywood actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Further examination of the site led to a page linked to Dialog’s app that exposed the names of current and former members, their personal email addresses and telephone numbers as well as details about the group’s upcoming event in Dublin, Ireland. Talks scheduled for the conference include “Build-a-Cult (Soapbox),” “It’s Fun to Be in Charge,” and “Democracy Under Surveillance,” among others.
But in a notification sent to those whose information was exposed, Dialog’s managing director, Juliette Levine, described the leak as “a hack executed by a well-known criminal who is wanted in the United States.” Wired obtained the notification.
Levine apparently was referring to crimew, who was indicted on hacking-related charges in 2021 but never convicted. In a statement on social media, crimew said that being labeled a “well-known criminal” is libelous given that she has “no criminal record and [has] not been found guilty of a crime in any court of law.”
Straight Arrow’s findings, as well as an analysis by Wired and multiple cybersecurity experts, do not indicate that the data was obtained through any technical exploitation and was instead publicly accessible.
Nevertheless, Wired was contacted by the law firm ArentFox Schiff over the weekend and asked to hand over what one lawyer described as “stolen” data. The letter, which said Dialog had alerted law enforcement, also referred to the incident as a “cyberattack” by a “known cybercriminal.” Wired says it did not hand over any data.
Participants seek distance from Dialog
The exposure stirred widespread attention and led several people named in the data to release public statements.
Actor Josh Brolin, who is set to speak at Dialog this August in Dublin, did not answer phone calls from Straight Arrow last week. But a spokesperson for Brolin told The Hollywood Reporter that the actor wondered “what the f- – – he got himself into.”
Ezra Klein, a columnist at The New York Times, released a lengthy statement on X that said he attended the conference in 2018 and 2022.
“No one ever asked me to keep it or my presence a secret,” he wrote. “My understanding was Thiel was one of its founders but no longer involved by the time I went. I never saw or talked to him in connection with Dialog.”
In a statement on Instagram, Gordon-Levitt said he had also attended two conferences.
“But, I do not know Peter Thiel,” he said. “I’ve never met him. I’ve never spoken with him or his representatives. I’ve never seen him at an event. From what I’ve read about his views, we are political and ideological opposites.”
Round out your reading
- Not red or blue: America’s politically homeless middle.
- Peter Thiel’s ‘Dialog’ network was super-secret. A data leak changed that.
- The novel legal strategy that Taylor Swift and Matthew McConaughey are using to fight AI.
- Illinois balances budget with new $200 million social media tax that tracks in-state users.
- When Trump serves up ‘Just the News,’ it comes with a side of bias.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
