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LulzSec (a contraction for Lulz Security) was a grey hat computer hacking group that claimed responsibility for several high profile attacks, including the compromise of user accounts from PlayStation Network in 2011.

The group also claimed responsibility for taking the CIA website offline. Some security professionals have commented that LulzSec has drawn attention to insecure systems and the dangers of password reuse. One of the founders of LulzSec was computer security specialist Hector Monsegur, who used the online moniker Sabu. At least four associates of LulzSec were arrested in March 2012 as part of this investigation. Prior, British authorities had announced the arrests of two teenagers they alleged were LulzSec members, going by the pseudonyms T-flow and Topiary. At just after midnight (BST, UT+01) on 26 June 2011, LulzSec suddenly released a "50 days of lulz" statement, which they claimed to be their final release, confirming that LulzSec consisted of six members, and that their website was to be shut down. Their final release included accounts and passwords from many different sources. Despite claims of retirement, the group committed another hack against newspapers owned by News Corporation on 18 July, defacing them with false reports regarding the death of Rupert Murdoch. The group had also helped launch Operation AntiSec, a joint effort involving LulzSec, Anonymous, and other hackers.

The online handles of these seven were established through various attempts by other hacking groups to release personal information of group members on the internet, leaked IRC logs published by The Guardian, and through confirmation from the group itself. He may have been part of the Anonymous group that hacked HBGary. Police arrested a man from Shetland, United Kingdom suspected of being Topiary on 27 July 2011.

A federal indictment against members contends that, prior to forming the hacking collective known as LulzSec, the six members were all part of another collective called Internet Feds, a group in rivalry with Anonymous. In May 2011, following the publicity surrounding the HBGary hacks, six members of Internet Feds founded the group LulzSec. Some LulzSec members had once been prominent Anonymous members, including member Topiary.

On 13 June, LulzSec released the e-mails and passwords of a number of users of senate.gov, the website of the United States Senate. On 15 June, LulzSec launched an attack on CIA.gov, the public website of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, taking the website offline with a distributed denial-of-service attack. On 2 December, an offshoot of LulzSec calling itself LulzSec Portugal, attacked several sites related to the government of Portugal.

On 24 June 2011, he claimed to have revealed the identity of LulzSec leader Sabu as an information technology consultant possibly from New York City. A short time before LulzSec claimed to be disbanding, a group calling itself the A-Team posted what they claimed was a full list of LulzSec members online along with numerous chat logs of the group communicating with each other.

LulzSec denied the man arrested was a member. In June 2012 Cleary, together with another suspected LulzSec member, 19-year-old Jake Davis, pleaded guilty conspiring to attack government, law enforcement and media websites in 2011. On 19 July 2011, the London Metropolitan Police announced the arrest of LulzSec member Tflow. The Police Central E-Crime Unit arrested an 18-year-old man from Shetland on 27 July 2011 suspected of being LulzSec member Topiary. While not a member of LulzSec, authorities suspect Hammond of being a member of Anonymous and charged him with access device fraud and hacking in relation to his supposed involvement in the December 2011 attack on intelligence company Stratfor as part of Operation AntiSec. On 8 April 2013, Jake 'Topiary' Davis and three other LulzSec members pleaded guilty to charges of computer hacking at Southwark Crown Court in London.

Quick Facts

• One of the founders of LulzSec was computer security specialist Hector Monsegur, who used the online moniker Sabu.
• At just after midnight (UTC) on 26 June 2011, LulzSec released a "50 days of lulz" statement, which they claimed to be their final release, confirming that LulzSec consisted of six members, and that their website was to be taken down.
• The group had also helped launch Operation AntiSec, a joint effort involving LulzSec, Anonymous, and other hackers.
• At least four associates of LulzSec were arrested in March 2012 as part of this investigation.
• The group also claimed responsibility for taking the CIA website offline.

Source material: Wikipedia - "LulzSec". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.