June 26, 2011
LulzSec quits hacking game - but hits EA hard first
Notorious hacking group LulzSec has announced its ‘retirement’ from illegal activity, as it releases the details of half a million subscribers of EA online title Battlefield Heroes.
The group has hit headlines in the past two months for breaching the security of companies including Fox.com, Sony, Bethesda and the owners of EVE Online, releasing millions of personal user details.
As its final act, the group yesterday released a new file with half a Gigabyte of user information. It contained data from telecommunication company AT&T, as well as the IP addresses of corporations including Sony, Viacom, Disney, EMI and NBC Universal.
It also reportedly spilled details of 200,000 email addresses, usernames, and encrypted passwords from hackforums.net; 12,000 names, usernames, and passwords of the NATO online bookshop; 550,000 usernames and encrypted passwords from EA’s Battlefield Heroes; 50,000 usernames, email addresses, and encrypted passwords of various video game forum users; and 29 users of Priority Investigations, an Irish private investigation company.
A statement released today read:
Friends around the globe,
We are Lulz Security, and this is our final release, as today marks something meaningful to us. 50 days ago, we set sail with our humble ship on an uneasy and brutal ocean: the Internet. The hate machine, the love machine, the machine powered by many machines. We are all part of it, helping it grow, and helping it grow on us.
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. The raw, uninterrupted, chaotic thrill of entertainment and anarchy. It’s what we all crave, even the seemingly lifeless politicians and emotionless, middle-aged self-titled failures. You are not failures. You have not blown away. You can get what you want and you are worth having it, believe in yourself.
While we are responsible for everything that The Lulz Boat is, we are not tied to this identity permanently. Behind this jolly visage of rainbows and top hats, we are people. People with a preference for music, a preference for food; we have varying taste in clothes and television, we are just like you. Even Hitler and Osama Bin Laden had these unique variations and style, and isn’t that interesting to know? The mediocre painter turned supervillain liked cats more than we did.
Again, behind the mask, behind the insanity and mayhem, we truly believe in the AntiSec movement. We believe in it so strongly that we brought it back, much to the dismay of those looking for more anarchic lulz. We hope, wish, even beg, that the movement manifests itself into a revolution that can continue on without us. The support we’ve gathered for it in such a short space of time is truly overwhelming, and not to mention humbling. Please don’t stop. Together, united, we can stomp down our common oppressors and imbue ourselves with the power and freedom we deserve.
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.
Thank you for sailing with us. The breeze is fresh and the sun is setting, so now we head for the horizon.
Let it flow…
Lulz Security - our crew of six wishes you a happy 2011, and a shout-out to all of our battlefleet members and supporters across the globe
June 28, 2011
LulzSec continues to work within Anonymous
The games industry and many other industries around the globe may have breathed a sigh of relief when LulzSec said a hack on EA and others would be its last on Sunday, but it seems that it was only a name that was actually retired.
Companies including Sony, Viacom, Disney, EMI, NBC Universal and EA felt a blow on Sunday as the headline-grabbing hacking group released more data and user information connected to them, so LulzSec’s farewell will have been welcome.
It turns out, however, that LulzSec lives on in the equally infamous hacking group Anonymous, which has been linked to the devastating PSN hack in April.
A couple of Tweets from Anonymous confirm that while LulzSec dropped its name, its members are still continuing their hacking activities:
“We like to clarify again: All LulzSec members are accounted for, nobody is hiding. Only a name was abandoned for the greater glory.”
“Yes, my fellows. We may be not quite as funny, but we can assure you: We sail in the same spirit. LulzSec = Anonymous. Who did NOT [k]now?”
So far, only one suspect, Ryan Cleary, has been reprimanded for connections with LulzSec and Anonymous. The hacking groups, however, have distanced themselves from the individual.
3 notes
See Post
#lulzsec #anonymous #hack #hackers #hacking
LulzSec suspect Ryan Cleary granted bail, banned from internet
Ryan Cleary, the hacker arrested in Essex last week with possible links to LulzSec, has been granted bail.
The conditions of bail mean that Cleary must observe a curfew between 9 am and 7 pm and wear an electronic tag, reports Reuters.
The 19-year-old can’t leave his house without one of his parents and is not allowed access to the internet or possess any devices capable of going online.
Since his arrest, Cleary has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism characterised by difficulties in social interaction and “restrictive and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests,” according to Wikipedia.
NASA hacker Gary McKinnon also suffers from Asperger’s syndrome.
Cleary’s mother accepted the terms of the bail and told the court, “I’m aware that I’m his best friend as well as his mother, because he’s reclusive.”
Since his arrest, recently disbanded hacking group LulzSec has distanced itself from Cleary.
