LulzSec to disband, the hackers announce on Twitter

LulzSec, the publicity-seeking computer hacking group that has left a trail of sabotaged websites over the last two months, has announced that is it disbanding. Lulz Security made the announcement through its Twitter account.

It gave no reason for the group dissolving, but it will be a seen as sign of nerves in the face of legal investigations.

Rival hackers have also joined in the hunt, releasing information they say could point to the identities of the six-member group.

One of the group's members was interviewed by The Associated Press on Friday, and gave no indication that its work was ending.

LulzSec has 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 they kept up their activities, the greater the chance that one of them would make some mistake that would enable authorities to catch them.
They have inspired copycat groups around the globe, he noted, which means similar attacks are likely to continue even without LulzSec.
"They can sit back and watch the mayhem and not risk being captured," Mitnick said.
As a parting shot, LulzSec released a grab-bag of 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 the telecoms company AT&T Inc., detailing its build out 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.
In the Friday interview, the LulzSec member said the group was sitting on at least 5 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 a 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's an offshoot of Anonymous, a larger, more loosely organised group that attempts to mobilise hackers for attacks on targets it considers immoral, like oppressive Middle Eastern governments and opponents of the document-distribution site WikiLeaks.
LulzSec, on the other hand, attacked anyone they could for "the lulz," which is internet jargon for "laughs."

Hackings hit News International in revenge for coverage of teenager's arrest

Hackers have attacked computer servers belonging to News International in apparent retaliation for coverage of the arrest of Ryan Cleary.

The website of the Sun newspaper and a computer used in the production of The Times were targeted by hackers who bombarded them with internet traffic in an attempt to make them crash.

The international hacking group LulzSec, of which police suspect Mr Cleary to be a member, has taken exception to the Sun’s coverage of the case since he was held on Monday.

LulzSec has also threatened a major attack on government websites today, using the Twitter website to promise a “major leak”.

It came as Mr Cleary, 19, was remanded in custody for further questioning by police as he appeared in court charged with five hacking offences.

News International declined to comment on the attacks on its servers, but a source told The Daily Telegraph that computers in Russia had been used to attack the Sun website and Times newspaper in the early hours of yesterday. The production of The Times was not affected and the website of the Sun – described by LulzSec as the worst “UK publication in existence” - was slowed down but did not crash at any time.
“We are aware that certain organisations are targeting news organisations,” said the source.
Mr Cleary, of Wickford, Essex, is said to be co-operating with police as they investigate a string of cyber attacks both here and abroad.
Yesterday he appeared before City of Westminster magistrates charged with five offences under the Criminal Law and Computer Misuse Act, including an attack on the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency. He did not enter a plea.
The court remanded him into the custody of the Metropolitan Police for a further three days so he can be questioned about other cyber attacks on computers owned by the CIA and the US Senate, among others.
No application for bail was made and his solicitor did not oppose the request for him to be remanded.
Ben Cooper, representing Mr Cleary, told the bench: “Mr Cleary is fully co-operating with police and wishes to continue. In those circumstances we do not oppose the application.”
Mr Cleary was brought into the dock wearing a white T-shirt and white tracksuit bottoms, and spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address.
Mr Cooper described his client as: “A vulnerable young man,” adding: “There are certain matters that are being looked into with regards to his vulnerability. The police have been informed and are fully aware of the situation.”
District Judge Quentin Purdy told Mr Cleary he could be brought back before the court at any time if he is charged with other offences. He will be taken to Charing Cross police station for further questioning.
Mr Cleary’s mother, Rita, who was in court to support her son, had earlier expressed fears that the reclusive teenager would kill himself if he was denied access to his computers.
Mrs Cleary said her son had suffered mental and emotional problems since early childhood and attempted to take his own life at the age of 10.
She said had not been outside since Christmas and was concerned how he would be coping. She said she could not believe he was a criminal mastermind.
The teenager’s 22-year-old half brother, Mitchell, said: “He’s not some kind of criminal mastermind ... he’s just a boy.”
Mr Cleary was arrested at his family home on Monday in a joint operation by Scotland Yard and the FBI.

LulzSec claims new international hacking victory

LulzSec claims to have brought down two Brazilian government websites in fresh attacks after a 19-year-old teenager from Essex was arrested, accused of being part of the hacker groupIn a tweet in the early hours of Wednesday morning, LulzSecBrazil wrote: "TANGO DOWN brasil.gov.br & presidencia.gov.br"

Another Twitter message from the main LulzSec page then added: "Our Brazilian unit is making progress. Well done @LulzSecBrazil, brothers!"

The websites are the official pages of the Brazilian Government and the President's office, the equivalent of the Downing Street site.

Attempts to access the websites this morning proved unsuccessful and the attacks appeared to have swamped the pages with internet visits, causing them to crash.

The Brazilian government has become the latest high-profile victim claimed by LulzSec in a list which has allegedly included the CIA, the US Senate, the US television broadcaster PBS, Britain's Serious and Organised Crime Agency and the technology firms Sony and Nintendo. .If the claims are accurate, it would not be the first time that LulzSec has reacted hard to attempts to damage it.
Yesterday, the group posted the private details, including the home addresses, of one hacker and his associate who "tried to snitch on us", accusing the hacker of "countless cybercrimes".
Addressing the post to the "FBI & other law enforcement clowns", they signed off: "There is no mercy on The Lulz Boat. Snitches get stitches."The 19-year-old arrested in the UK on Monday night is Ryan Cleary, the son of a college lecturer. The teenager is accused of being a “major player” in LulzSec.
He was held in a raid at his family home in Wickford following a joint investigation between Scotland Yard and the FBI, which was also aimed at finding the hackers who breached security at the video games firms.
No messages were posted on the Twitter account of LulzSec for about 10 hours after the arrest before two denials came.
One read: "Clearly the UK police are so desperate to catch us that they've gone and arrested someone who is, at best, mildly associated with us. Lame"
Another read: "Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it's all over now... wait... we're all still here! Which poor b-----d did they take down?"
It was alleged last night that Mr Cleary was online in the middle of hacking when he was held. The arrest came hours after an anonymous internet user claiming to be from LulzSec threatened to publish the entire 2011 census database, though this was later dismissed as a hoax. A Scotland Yard spokesman said a “significant amount of material” had been seized from Mr Cleary’s family home by officers from its specialist e-crime unit, and would now be subjected to forensic examination.
Mr Cleary’s family expressed disbelief that the self-confessed computer “nerd” had anything to do with hacking. His mother Rita, 45, said her son “lives his life online” but she thought he had been playing computer games in his bedroom at the detached family home.
She added that, as he was led away by police, he told her he feared he would be extradited to America.
His older brother Mitchell, 22, said: “Ryan is obsessed with computers. That’s all he ever did. I was stunned to hear he had been arrested.
”He's not the sort of person to do anything mad or go out and let his hair down or do anything violent. He stays in his room - you'll be lucky if he opens the blinds, but that's just family, isn't it? I barely see him - I'm more of a football person - he's more of an inside person."
He said his brother had fallen out with people over WikiLeaks: "He used to be part of WikiLeaks and he has upset someone from doing that and they have made a Facebook page having a go at him."
James Rounce, a neighbour of Cleary, said: "They moved in about 10 years ago and have been pleasant neighbours. I think he had been away at university and had come back for the holidays or because he had finished his exams. You could tell he was very bright just from the way he spoke and presented himself."
Mr Cleary’s father Neil, 44, worked as musical director on the West End production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express. He later became a lecturer at Peterborough Regional College in Cambridgeshire and director of its orchestra. Nick Stamford, a former classmate of Ryan Cleary, said: “He used to spend a lot of time at home and that is when I think he got into computers. He was quite bright but he didn’t really have too many friends.”
LulzSec has emerged in recent weeks as a rival to the hacking group Anonymous, which targeted banks that had refused to process donations to the WikiLeaks website.
The organisation claimed credit for hacking into the accounts of Sony PlayStation users. On Monday it bombarded the website of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency with so much internet traffic it had to be taken offline.
Mr Cleary’s arrest is likely to lead to comparisons with the case of Gary McKinnon, the 45-year-old Briton fighting extradition to the United States, where he could face 60 years in jail if convicted of hacking into Pentagon and Nasa computers.