Are the LulzSec Hackers Asking to Get Caught?

LulzSec strikes again. CREDIT: Twitter View full size image

If a real crook the bank robbing kind, for example carried out his criminal exploits with half the brazen disregard for authority demonstrated by the hacking group Lulz Security, he'd probably be locked up.

So why, then, is Lulz Security (or LulzSec, to the group's growing number of Twitter followers) still active? If its members are so open about their crimes, why haven't they been caught? Does the group's behavior suggest that its members are courting those who could bring them down?

It seems that way, according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for the security firm Sophos.

"I don't know if they're making themselves an easy target ? that rather depends on how well they're covering their tracks ? but they're certainly making themselves an attractive target for the computer crime authorities," Cluley told SecurityNewsDaily.

Part of what has driven LulzSec to take on big-name targets like the CIA, Nintendo, PBS and Fox.com in recent weeks seems to the group's almost adolescent approach to hacking, treating it like a game. And this is a game LulzSec seems to be winning.

"The powers that be will be embarrassed by the very public way that LulzSec appear to be 'getting away with it,' and will be keen to bring them to justice even more so when it's their own websites that are targeted," Cluley said.

Taunting the authorities

Unlike conventional criminals, LulzSec does not shy away from the spotlight. In fact, the group openly embraces it almost any chance it gets.

Announcing its takedowns of the video game company Bethesda Softworks and the website Senate.gov , LulzSec wrote: "Presenting our Bethesda & Senate.gov double surprise release. May the lulz flow through you!" ("Lulz" is an Internet term for laughs or good times, derived from the acronym "LOL," for "laughing out loud.")

As it hacked Sony, LulzSec taunted the company, writing: "Hey @Sony, you know we're making off with a bunch of your internal stuff right now and you haven't even noticed? Slow and steady, guys."

Video

New Iris Scanner Tech Is More Secure And Less Costly | Video

Biometric identification is very promising but one technique, iris scanning, hasn't been foolproof. Dr. Oleg Komogortsev's team at Texas State University has found a way to make iris scans harder to counterfeit and the tech cheaper to utilize.

Perhaps most blatantly, LulzSec took down the CIA website on June 15 simply to show it could.

[((CONLINK|6915|LulzSec Takes Down CIA Website â?