Sunday, May 29, the website of the U.S. public television channel PBS publishes an amazing scoop: the rapper Tupac Shakur, gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996, has in fact survived his wounds and lived secretly in a small town in Nova Zealand. Soon, PBS announced that the article was false, published surreptitiously at night by pirates who took control of its servers.
Disappointment for the fans, Tupac is still dead. Note the quality of the work of hackers who were able to convincingly imitate the style of editorial and graphic PBS (a copy of the fake page is archived at:-Freze. It/5R) Shortly after, a group calling itself LulzSec claims action in an ambiguous way in a message on Twitter.
Their aim is to protest against the broadcast of a PBS documentary about Wikileaks, whose content they dislike. "Lulz", a corruption of "LOL" (or "laughing out loud" laughing out loud), means a deliberately bad joke against a designated victim. The term is used by the militants of the group Anonymous, who distinguished himself in recent months, attacking organizations considered hostile to Wikileaks.
In general, "hacktivists" of Anonymous simply block the sites they want to punish, by saturating them with waves of false requests. They compare their actions to street demonstrations or pickets - which are legal in democratic countries, even when they disrupt traffic or proper conduct of an enterprise.
When Anonymous is detected and prosecuted, they defended themselves by saying they should not be treated as pirates, because they are forbidden to enter the servers referred to alter their content. However, the group was freed LulzSec of this rule by engaging in a real operation requiring hacking skills and sharp tools.
To date, we do not know if it really activists supporting Wikileaks, or vandals using this issue as a pretext to legitimize their exploits - although the border between these two worlds is often blurred. ADDRESSES AND PASSWORDS Recently, some U.S. media have been victims of data theft. In early May, unidentified hackers attack a server in the Fox television network containing personal information on 250,000 prospective music game X-Factor.
A few days later, the group seized the LulzSec email addresses and passwords of several hundred employees of the Fox by hacking into the professional social network Linked-In. To authenticate his feat, he publishes a sample. LulzSec then announces that he is preparing a new operation against the network of online games from Sony, guilty of having filed a complaint against hackers who managed to unlock their new console.
Two days after hacking the site of PBS, LulzSec continues to challenge its directors on Twitter: "Hey, you're still trying to regain control? The boat sails Lulz freely through your system horribly outdated!" Then he publishes links to pages reproducing three lists of passwords used by technicians, administrative and journalists from PBS and confidential data on the server architecture of the chain - which could help other hackers to conduct further attacks.
Finally, to clarify the situation, or to cover their tracks, LulzSec reiterates that it has no connection with Anonymous - but the doubt remains. Article published in the edition of 03.06.11 
Disappointment for the fans, Tupac is still dead. Note the quality of the work of hackers who were able to convincingly imitate the style of editorial and graphic PBS (a copy of the fake page is archived at:-Freze. It/5R) Shortly after, a group calling itself LulzSec claims action in an ambiguous way in a message on Twitter.
Their aim is to protest against the broadcast of a PBS documentary about Wikileaks, whose content they dislike. "Lulz", a corruption of "LOL" (or "laughing out loud" laughing out loud), means a deliberately bad joke against a designated victim. The term is used by the militants of the group Anonymous, who distinguished himself in recent months, attacking organizations considered hostile to Wikileaks.
In general, "hacktivists" of Anonymous simply block the sites they want to punish, by saturating them with waves of false requests. They compare their actions to street demonstrations or pickets - which are legal in democratic countries, even when they disrupt traffic or proper conduct of an enterprise.
When Anonymous is detected and prosecuted, they defended themselves by saying they should not be treated as pirates, because they are forbidden to enter the servers referred to alter their content. However, the group was freed LulzSec of this rule by engaging in a real operation requiring hacking skills and sharp tools.
To date, we do not know if it really activists supporting Wikileaks, or vandals using this issue as a pretext to legitimize their exploits - although the border between these two worlds is often blurred. ADDRESSES AND PASSWORDS Recently, some U.S. media have been victims of data theft. In early May, unidentified hackers attack a server in the Fox television network containing personal information on 250,000 prospective music game X-Factor.
A few days later, the group seized the LulzSec email addresses and passwords of several hundred employees of the Fox by hacking into the professional social network Linked-In. To authenticate his feat, he publishes a sample. LulzSec then announces that he is preparing a new operation against the network of online games from Sony, guilty of having filed a complaint against hackers who managed to unlock their new console.
Two days after hacking the site of PBS, LulzSec continues to challenge its directors on Twitter: "Hey, you're still trying to regain control? The boat sails Lulz freely through your system horribly outdated!" Then he publishes links to pages reproducing three lists of passwords used by technicians, administrative and journalists from PBS and confidential data on the server architecture of the chain - which could help other hackers to conduct further attacks.
Finally, to clarify the situation, or to cover their tracks, LulzSec reiterates that it has no connection with Anonymous - but the doubt remains. Article published in the edition of 03.06.11
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