Lulzsec Scuttles Off The Hacking Scene

Lulz Security has disbanded at the end of seven weeks of hacking exploits. The group of six hackers announced in a final posting that it had always intended to limit its operational lifespan.

LulzSec built up its 281,868 following on Twitter by reporting about hacks of Sony, the US Senate and the CIA, the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), plus the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS.org), and various others. The group always said it was in it just for fun and to show up organisations with lax security.

Hot Deadline Or Cold Feet

In its posting, the LulzSec hackers said, “For the past 50 days we’ve been disrupting and exposing corporations, governments, often the general population itself, and quite possibly everything in between, just because we could. All to selflessly entertain others – vanity, fame, recognition, all of these things are shadowed by our desire for that which we all love.”

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said, “Maybe, quite simply, LulzSec was worried that the heat was intensifying – and it was time for them to get out of the kitchen before the computer crime authorities caught up with them.”

Over the past week, groups affiliated with LulzSec have taken down the Brazilian Government’s Website and another attacked an Arizona police department. This attack had serious implications because it gave the names, addresses and personal details of officers associated with the Arizona Police Department of Public Safety, an organisation that has built a reputation for being tough on illegal immigration.

The attack was a change of stance from primarily embarrassing random victims into what was promised to be a series of exploits against immigration departments, with a secondary aim to terrorise communities fighting an unjust “war on drugs”.

With the FBI and Scotland Yard on their trail, the good ship LulzSec was sailing into hot water. The arrest of alleged LulzSec hacker Ryan Cleary was, perhaps, a wake-up call, despite the hacking group’s denial of any link with him.

The group’s last act was to post its remaining booty up on the Pirate Bay Website. This is a collection of thousands of usernames, passwords and documents stolen from a variety of Websites, including login details of players of the Battlefield Heroes game which is currently offline while Electronic Arts (EA) investigates the hack.

“Once again, it appears that Websites are not taking enough care over protecting users’ passwords,” Cluley said. “If you haven’t yet woken up to the risks associated with using the same password on different Websites, now is the time to do so.”

LulzSec implores its followers to join and promote the AntiSec movement, the collective’s broader sweep of anarchic exploits.

“So with those last thoughts, it’s time to say bon voyage. Our planned 50 day cruise has expired, and we must now sail into the distance, leaving behind – we hope – inspiration, fear, denial, happiness, approval, disapproval, mockery, embarrassment, thoughtfulness, jealousy, hate, even love. If anything, we hope we had a microscopic impact on someone, somewhere. Anywhere.”