Psych! LulzSec and Anonymous are “bros,” hacker groups say

June 20, 2011 | Matthew Lynley

Hacker groups LulzSec and Anonymous are launching a carpet-bombing hacking operation on government agencies, marking the first time the two highly-publicized hacker groups have cooperated.

The hacktivist groups launched Operation Anti-Security, which encourages hackers around the world to attack government websites and deface them. It also marks the first time that LulzSec has publicly cooperated with Anonymous, another high-profile hacking group. The two groups have been at odds since LulzSec began attacking several video games and publicly taunting 4chan.org users. Anonymous is a loosely-associated collection of hackers that routinely takes up politically- and morally-charged causes.

“Attention #Media: about #Lulzsec and #Anonymous, we are not at war. We are bros of teh internetz. Also, /b/ != Anonymous,” hacking group Anonymous said on its Twitter account.

LulzSec said it is hacking websites like CIA.gov for fun, rather than for political reasons. The group also said there was a lot of information taken from the networks it had broken into that the group had not publicly released. It has released a lot of sensitive data and passwords taken from users of various sites like CIA.gov. This will be the first operation that is politically and morally motivated that LulzSec has participated in.

LulzSec said it came from the same core group of hackers that would go on to become known as Anonymous. LulzSec’s attacks also bear an increasing resemblance to Anonymous. For instance, Anonymous regularly takes up political causes, and a recent attack on Senate.gov is one of several politically-motivated attacks the LulzSec team has executed.

Lulzsec previously broke into the Sony Pictures site and invited readers to “plunder those 3.5 million music coupons while they can.” It also said it was targeting Sony in retaliation for how it handled the downtime of its PlayStation Network after it was forced to bring down the service and beef up security after an attack by an as-yet unidentified hacker group. Members of the LulzSec group were also able to break into the PBS site recently and post a fake story saying that rapper Tupac Shakur was still alive.