LulzSec Takes Down CIA.gov, Hacking Simply for Enjoyment

The hacker group LulzSec, famous for their gaming community hacks, is moving on to bigger targets. While the group has claimed responsibility for hacks and data dumps against Sony, Bethesda, and Nintendo in the past, they recently went after the U.S. Senate and have now taken down the CIA’s website.

That’s right, for a window of a few hours yesterday afternoon, cia.gov was inaccessible thanks to LulzSec. Accessibility of the site later on in the evening was sporadic at best for some. There’s been no evidence that any sensitive data was compromised in the attack, as it looks like, once again, LulzSec just did it for the lulz.

They also reminded followers that the cia.gov attack was rather simple, and that their attack on Sony titled “Sownage” was much more extensive –

LulzSec is a difficult one to pinpoint. Their motivations are not entirely clear; do their hacks fall in line with so called “hacktivist” goals? Their non-gaming targets (CIA, U.S. Senate and PBS) do seem to be slightly political in nature. Are they simply taking these sites down and posting information to show that they can?

Their “taglines” of sorts are things like “Laughing at your security” and “Wrecking your infrastructures since 2011.” Perhaps they are really are just doing it, as they say, for the laughs.

What do people think about LulzSec? Do they feel that exposing security flaws in high profile organizations’ sites is funny? Or do they think that hacking and DDos attacks are not the be played around with? A poll conducted on Sophos’ naked security blog reveals that opinions are pretty split. 43% of people say that these attacks are no laughing matter while 40% say that the attacks are funny, more power to them! These people say that LulzSec is doing good as well, but making serious points about security flaws.

But the fact that LulzSec is able to remain entirely unknown, and avoid any consequences for their hacks must really piss off the targets of their attacks. The fact that they are so open about everything must infuriate their opponents and delight their proponents. They definitely welcome the publicity, and with attacks coming almost every day now, it looks like LulzSec is now an undeniable force on the interwebs.

What do you think about LulzSec’s activities? Let us know in the comments.

And for your viewing pleasure, LulzSec has gotten its own Taiwanese animation video courtesy of Next Media Animation. The people at NMA are famous for their timely, news-based animations that sometimes have the tendency to fall on the weird end of the spectrum. Check the new one out below: