Hacking organisation announces move on Twitter after attacks on entertainment company and law enforcement agency sites
The LulzSec hacking group, which has sabotaged a trail of websites over the last two months including attacks on law enforcement agencies and the release of private data, has said it is dissolving itself.
The group made the announcement through its Twitter account on Saturday. It gave no reason for the disbandment, which analysts say could be a sign of nerves in the face of law enforcement investigations.
Rival hackers have also released information they say could point to the identities of the six-member group.
LulzSec claimed hacks on major entertainment companies, FBI partner organisations, the CIA, the US senate and a pornography website.
Kevin Mitnick, a security consultant and former hacker, said the group had probably concluded that the more it kept up its activities, the greater the chance was that a member would make a mistake enabling the authorities to catch them.
LulzSec has inspired copycat groups around the world, he said, meaning similar attacks are likely to continue. "They can sit back and watch the mayhem and not risk being captured," he added.
As a parting shot, LulzSec released documents and login information apparently gleaned from gaming websites and corporate servers.
The largest group of documents – 338 files – appears to be internal documents from AT&T, detailing its building of a new wireless broadband network in the US. The network is set to go live this summer. A spokesman for the phone company could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the documents.
On Friday, a LulzSec member told AP the group was sitting on at least five gigabytes of government and law enforcement data from across the world, which it planned to release in the next three weeks. Saturday's release was less than one-tenth of that size.
In an unusual strategy for a hacker group, LulzSec has sought publicity and conducted a conversation with the public through its Twitter account.
Observers believe it is an offshoot of Anonymous, a larger, more loosely-organised group that attempts to mobilise hackers for attacks on targets it considers immoral, such as oppressive Middle Eastern governments and opponents of WikiLeaks.
LulzSec, in contrast, attacked anyone it could for "the lulz" – internet jargon for laughs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/26/lulzsec-says-it-is-to-disband
