Hackers who do it for the Lulz hit CIA website
THE hacker group that has been playing havoc with the online security of some of the world’s biggest companies
yesterday said it had brought down the website of the CIA.
Lulz Security (LulzSec) – whose members refer to it as the Lulz Boat – has already admitted to targeting a string of companies and organisations including Sony, Nintendo, the US Senate, video games maker Bethesda Softworks and the US Public Broadcasting System. Information stolen is often posted online.
The group, which consists of loosely affiliated hackers, has said it “doesn’t like the US government very much” and hacked the Senate website “just-for-kicks”.
In a dig at President Barack Obama’s comments that any state-backed cyber attacks will be treated as acts of war, the hackers added “is this an act of war, gentlemen? Problem?”
The CIA said it still investigating the breach, which is believed to be a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, where a site flooded with requests for information until it collapses.
LulzSec sometimes uses the image of a man in a top hat with a monacle (right). When a security firm offered a $10,000 reward for any hackers who could breach its website security the logo was plastered on the homepage along with the message: “Keep your money. We do it for the lulz.”
The brazen hackers even set up a telephone hotline for suggestions on targets. LulzSec tweeted the number on Wednesday, urging its more than 150,000 Twitter followers to help it pick its next victim.
The answering machine message said: “We are not available right now as we are busy raping your internet. Leave a message and we will get back to you whenever we feel like.”
More serious recent attacks, like those on the The International Monetary Fund, defence firm Lockheed Martin, Citigroup and Google are thought to be backed by foreign states. Citigroup was targeted by hackers who stole limited information about 200,000 US customers.