UPDATE 1 -- Notorious hacking group LulzSec says it is finished, releases final statement

[News_Editor]

UPDATE 1 -- Notorious hacking group LulzSec says it is finished, releases final statement

2011-06-26 08:53:35 GMT+7 (ICT)

LONDON (BNO NEWS) -- Notorious hacking group LulzSec on Sunday morning announced it is finished after 50 days during which it claimed responsibility for high-profile cyber attacks on the U.S. Senate, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Sony, and other websites.

The unexpected announcement comes amid growing pressure and the arrest of Ryan Cleary, a 19-year-old man from eastern England who is believed to have been a part of LulzSec, which is also known as Lulz Security. The hacking group itself has denied that Cleary was one of its core members.

"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," a statement from the group said. It also confirmed LulzSec consists of six crew members.

"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 added. "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."

During their 50 days, LulzSec has claimed responsibility for cyber attacks against Sony, PBS, the U.S. Senate, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and other websites. In an archive of files along with its final statement, LulzSec claimed responsibility for several other cyber attacks.

The archive contained what appeared to be around 762,000 usernames and passwords of users of the NATO e-Bookshop, Hackforums.net, and Battlefield Heroes Beta. It also contained another file with approximately 50,000 user logins, but LulzSec only identified the source as 'random gaming forums'.

On Thursday, NATO confirmed police were investigating a data breach involving its e-Bookshop. It said the e-Bookshop does not contain any classified data, and said access to the site has been temporarily blocked and subscribers have been notified.

Also in the archive released on Sunday are hundreds of files from telecommunications provider AT&T. The exact contents of the file were not immediately known, but some contained internal e-mails and server passwords. Most of the files appeared to be related to the development of LTE.

Another file in the archive pointed to the Civilian Human Resources website of the U.S. Navy, where LulzSec modified a number of job advertisements. Titles of some job advertisements were changed to 'PabloEscobar AntiSec', a reference to a Colombian drug lord who is frequently referred to as the 'world's greatest outlaw.'

In the statement, LulzSec thanked its supporters and asked them to continue. "We hope, wish, even beg, that the movement manifests itself into a revolution that can continue on without us," the statement said. "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."

It added: "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."

On Monday, both Lulz Security and Anonymous - another notorious hacking group - had announced they would continue together. "To increase efforts, we are now teaming up with the Anonymous collective and all affiliated battleships," Lulz Security said in a statement posted to pastebin.com.

But a day later, British police announced the arrest of 19-year-old Ryan Cleary. A day later, prosecutors charged him with one offence of conspiracy to contravene the provisions of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, three offences of committing an unauthorized act with intent contrary to Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and one offence of making, supplying or obtaining articles for use in an offence under Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 contrary to Section 3A of the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

The charges were only in relation to a LulzSec cyber attack on Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency. Investigations are continuing, and more charges could be filed in relation to other cyber attacks.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-06-26

[kuffki]

The scary part is that a 19 year old was able to hack extremely high profile sites and systems.

Perhaps all those hacked demand refund from their coders and employ the group members