LulzSec claims to have obtained trove of News Corp. emails
Online hacking group LulzSec said Monday night it had obtained a large cache of emails from the servers of News International, the News Corp. subsidiary which oversees global media baron Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers.
Along with the emails, LulzSec said it had unearthed the email logins and passwords for News International executives, including former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, who was arrested recently in connection to the paper’s phone hacking schemes.
A Twitter account connected with the hackers said they planned to release the emails online tomorrow. Also unearthed were phone numbers for News International officials, along with personal information about an online content editor.
News International, which hosts The Sun, responded by taking their mail servers offline. Hackers also took down the News International website, forcing it to redirect to a Twitter account for LulzSec.
One hacker going under the name “Sabu” — thought to be a co-founder of LulzSec — told The Independent that other publications which traffic in “bullshit reporting” will be targeted next.
“New York Times, Forbes, LA Times, we’re going in,” Sabu reportedly said.
LulzSec made a bit of a comeback last night after allegedly retiring, going active again to hack Murdoch newspaper The Sun, redirecting readers to a fake story about the media mogul’s untimely suicide.
At the same time, hackers launched a successful Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against The Times and RupertMurdoch.com, which they called a “fan site.”
In June, LulzSec described The Sun as “the shittest UK publication in existence,” adding, “if you don’t kick, hit or throw some kind of sports-related object at least thirty-five times a week, you are a filthy recluse to The Sun.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice have launched their own investigations into whether News Corp. participated in the hacking of 9/11 victims or U.S. officials.
So far, 10 people have been arrested in connection with a British investigation into the News Corp. hacking scandals.
The FBI also said Tuesday that it was serving search warrants across the U.S., in search of members of Anonymous.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed the latest hacks to ‘Anonymous’ following early media reports, but LulzSec has taken credit.