LulzSec recently decided to end its string of attacks with a message saying that these have all been part of a planned “50 Days of Lulz.” Some of its members also threw their support behind a separate effort called AntiSec, short for Anti-Security. This call was sent out to encourage all kinds of hacker and hacker groups to expose governments and big corporations.
We don’t believe that the people behind LulzSec have stopped their activities. Instead, they disbanded due to the attention they were getting from law enforcement and other hackers less approving of their activities. From British authorities’ arrest of Ryan Cleary and recent searches conducted in the United States, law enforcement agencies are clearly hot on the group’s trail.
If you log in to any of the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers that Anonymous uses, you can see that the members of LulzSec are still active and online. We are also seeing several groups naming themselves by region such as AnonNL or LulzSec Brazil that have splintered off to attack the governments of the countries they reside in. In addition, Anonymous is still engaging in usual activities such as launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against websites when there is something in the news that they do not approve of. For example, the leader of a group feeding homeless people in a public park in Orlando, Florida, was arrested.
Anonymous reacted by launching attacks against an Orlando tourism website, the local chamber of commerce, and the website of Universal Studios (which has a theme park in the city).
The recent emergence of the AntiSec movement has added more members to Anonymous. However, it seems that these new members have not really made the group more effective. Instead, they made the group more chaotic. Everyone needs to be aware of splinter groups like LulzSec Brazil because these launch specialized attacks and are organized like LulzSec.
It should also be noted that these ongoing hacker groups have also stirred controversy with regards to the efforts of various Governments around the world to block access to content they deem inappropriate, infringing on copyright or trademarks, subversive, malicious, or any other number of reasons.
It is a good idea for server & network administrators to perform penetration tests on the external-facing infrastructure of their respective organizational networks now so that they know what, if any, security holes need to be fixed. They should find and plug any and all security gaps in their networks before someone else that has malicious intent does it for them.
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