Lulz Security, a group of hackers who say they are in business to raise awareness of poor security and to have fun at the same time, announced that their two-month spree of hacking is now over (Sherr). The group also posted their farewell announcement on The Pirate Bay, a file-sharing Web site, but did not give a reason for their end (Bilton). They bragged about "disrupting and exposing corporations, governments, and often the general population itself" (Huffington Post). However, many are skeptical of the group actually leaving the Internet. They are known for their sarcasm and have continually promised to continue their work (Bilton). .
"It's time to say bon voyage," they posted on their website. "Our planned 50-day cruise has expired and we must now sail into the distance." The group typically used nautical terms in their messages (Sherr). .
LulzSec, as they typically go by, announced its demise after an attack on Sony Corp. resulted in a breach of customer data that compromised the personal information of roughly 100 million users. The hackers claim they did not perform the original hack, but they did target the company soon after (Sherr). .
The company has also attacked Nintendo Co., PBS, a Federal Bureau of Investigation affiliate, the Senate, and the CIA. They took a political stance after releasing documents from the Arizona Department Public Safety to protest against a controversial state immigration law (Sherr).
After they announced their farewell, LulzSec released files from AOL Corp., AT&T Inc., and the FBI (Sherr). On Twitter, they also encouraged other hackers to continue attacking Web sites and government agencies and announced their plans to keep hacking through Anonymous, another collective of rogue hackers (Bilton). The two groups are committed to "Operation Anti-Security" (Huffington Post). .
The press release read, "Again, behind the mask, behind the insanity and mayhem, we truly believe in the AntiSec movement.