LulzSec sets sail again, this time with new sirs at the helm
A screengrab of militarysingles.com after the site came under attack by a group of hackers calling themselves LulzSec Reborn, a reincarnation of the original LulzSec collective that carried out an infamous 50-day long hacking spree last summer. LulzSec Reborn is the first use of the LulzSec hacker brand since the original group disbanded last July.
It seems the Lulz Boat has set sail again.
LulzSec Reborn claimed responsibility for its second hack today since the retirement of the original LulzSec hacker collective last July.
In what, at this point, appears to be multiple hacks taking place back to back, LulzSec Reborn gained access to servers belonging to dating website militarysingles.com, an online dating service catering to American soldiers. LulzSec announced the hacks in a post on pastebin.com, which was tweeted by the group's new Twitter account, LulzboatR. The pastebin statement claimed that 170,837 accounts were stolen from militarysingles.com and dumped. Among these accounts were emails hosted by domains belonging to Microsoft, the US Army and the US Navy.
“And so it started … http://pastebin.com/JRY3cA5T @ODigiturk,” tweeted LulzSec Reborn on Sunday evening.
ESingles Inc., the parent company of MilitarySingles.com, released a statement shortly after LulzSec Reborn claimed responsibility, saying there was no actual evidence to suggest a breach had taken place.
“We at ESingles Inc. are aware of the claim that someone has hacked MilitarySingles.com and are currently investigating the situation. At this time there is no actual evidence that MilitarySingles.com was hacked and it is possible that the Tweet from Operation Digiturk is simply a false claim,” read the statement, which was posted to databreaches.net.
LulzSec Reborn responded by tweeting a link to militarysingles.com, now emblazoned with the Nyan Cat, the Sir, and the harrowing,"All your base are belong to LulzSec," all with the collective's LulzBoat themesong playing in the background. As of Tuesday afternoon, the LulzSec logo had not been removed from the militarysingles.com domain.
More from GlobalPost: Prominent hacker turns on Anonymous, works as informant
Less than 24 hours later after the first attack, the same twitter account announced that LulzSec Reborn had struck again, targeting global information and communications technology company CSS Corp, dumping the main domains entire database. LulzSez again announced the attack on pastebin.com.
“http://csscorp.com/ – Global Information & Communication Technology Service Hacked teh sailin continues!” tweeted LulzSec Reborn, claiming responsibility for the breach and well as teh sailin of the LulzBoat.
The hackers behind the resurrection of LulzSec remain anonymous and the original Twitter account first used by LulzSec, @LulzSec, remains dormant and has not been active since July 27, 2011.
A number of LulzSec’s original members have been arrested and detained since they disbanded last July. Earlier this month, the group's former de facto leader, Sabu, made headlines when the FBI revealed he had struck a plea deal and was acting as an informant. It appeared to be a fatal blow to the once-feared hacker collective.
Softpedia, however, is reporting that it has spoken to several hackers who claim to have taken part in the recent attacks. Those hackers told Softpedia that LulzSec Reborn is the new incarnation of the old collective.
“We are not the old LulzSec. The idea is to continue what some have started and never managed to finish. At the same time we want to avenge the ones that were arrested,” one of the hackers told Softpedia.
With the LulzSec brand being taken over by new blood, LulzSec Reborn promises to remain true to the original spirit of the old LulzSec.
“We did it just to have fun. All the hacks will be done for a reason, but also for fun. LulzSec style,” one of the hackers told Softpedia.
More from GlobalPost: Anonymous targets AIPAC
LulzSec Reborn tweeted the article written by Softpedia, giving implicit confirmation to the author’s claim of having spoken to hackers who were actively involved in the current operations.
The structure of LulzSec has been characteristically smaller and more focused than the leaderless Anonymous hacker collective. A larger and more amorphous body of individuals, Anonymous hackers share only a common ethos and rarely operate as a team.
During their 50-day hacking spree during the summer of 2011, the group took credit for attacks on sites belonging to Sony, PBS.org, the US Senate, CIA, Arizona sheriffs and many other before announcing that the LulzBoat was headed for port. But, apparently, it didn't head to the dry dock.