LulzSec Hackers Call it Quits
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LulzSec strikes again.
CREDIT: Twitter |
After 50 days of wreaking havoc on the Web, the Lulz Security hacking group is calling it quits.
In a statement posted by the group on the file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, Lulz Security (LulzSec) said its six-member crew has decided to "say bon voyage" to the hacking exploits that catapulted the group into the spotlight.
"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," the statement, posted Saturday night (June 25), reads.
[LulzSec Makes Enemies of Fellow Hackers, Pretends Not to Care ]
LulzSec says its "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."
Fear and embarrassment were certainly among the emotions felt by several of the high-profile companies and organizations that became LulzSec victims in the past 50 days.
That list includes: PBS, Fox Broadcasting Network, the FBI partner organization InfraGard, the C.I.A., the U.S. Senate, Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), video game maker Bethesda Softworks, government websites in Brazil and the Arizona Department of Public Safety .
True to the group's brazen and theatrical nature, LulzSec didn't bow out without a final curtain call. As a farewell gesture, LulzSec made available for download a cache of documents stolen from corporate servers, including what looks to be documents from AT&T, according to the New York Times. (The cache may be infected with a computer virus, according to one report.)
Although LulzSec gave no reason for ending its reign of terror, it's possible the group felt the long arm of the law getting closer; on June 20, British police arrested Ryan Cleary, a 19-year-old hacker suspected of orchestrating LulzSec's attack on the SOCA.
Or, perhaps, LulzSec wanted to clear the waters for other hackers, such as Team Poison, a new group that made a name for itself on Friday (June 24) when it released personal information relating to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Telegraph reported.
Here's an audio rendition of LulzSec's farewell manifesto, set to a MDI rendition of MGMT's "Kids":
- Cybercrime Blotter: High-Profile Hacks of 2011
- LulzSec Makes Enemies of Fellow Hackers, Pretends Not to Care
- Behind the Cybercrime Surge: Smarts, Laziness and Cool
