Hackers LulzSec say they are disbanding
27 Jun 2011
After 50 days of high-profile hacking into websites, a secretive band of hackers that have gained notoriety under the banner, Lulzsec, say they are disbanding.
"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 group said Saturday in a note posted on Pastebin.
The statement did not provide any indication as to the reasons they have chosen to disband.
It is being guessed a likely reason could be the recent arrest of a 19-year-old Englishman, Ryan Cleary, who was arrested and charged for several hacks done by hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec. LulzSec, however, denied that Cleary was a formal part of its group.
If their statement is not intended to mislead, then the group's final act of hacking may be the posting of what it said were internal company documents from AT&T along with private data from other companies.
LulzSec shot to fame or notoriety after claiming recently to have attacked the CIA website. They also took credit for hacking into the website of American public broadcaster PBS and posting a fake story saying the rapper Tupac Shakur was still alive. The rapper was murdered nearly 15 years ago.
They have not claimed responsibility for the Sony PlayStation Network breach, where hackers broke into Sony Pictures' website, compromising the accounts of over 1 million users, and the gaming company Sega, stealing the details of nearly 1.3 million users.
But the group did post what it claims was proprietary information from Sony Pictures and other Sony properties' websites.
It also claimed responsibility for bringing down the Brazilian government's website earlier this month.
Cyber security experts say the group may be a splinter faction of the group "Anonymous," a loose coalition of hackers that gained prominence with their support of the whistle-blower site, WikiLeaks.
The group, however, insisted that "we are not tied to this identity permanently," saying that "behind this jolly visage of rainbows and top hats, we are people."
It also said, "we truly believe in the AntiSec movement."
Recently, LulzSec joined forces with Anonymous to for Operation Anti-Security, which targeted the Web sites and databases of governments with which it disagreed.
"We hope, wish, even beg, that the movement manifests itself into a revolution that can continue on without us," LulzSec continued. "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."
