They called it quits just a few weeks ago but now anti-security hacker movement LulzSec are back – and with a bang. Last night the group attacked both The Sun newspaper website and the News International website, with their sights firmly set on Rupert Murdoch.
At around 10pm GMT last night LulzSec managed to hack into The Sun website and redirect it to an almost identical page (http://www.new-times.co.uk/sun/). On the front page of the “fake Sun” website they posted a news article declaring media mogul Rupert Murdoch as dead. The headline read: “Media Moguls body discovered”. Despite some questionable grammar, spelling and a reason for death, the internet was sent into frenzy with the story hitting Twitter’s Trending Topics.
The article, which The Sun’s administrators struggled to take down for several hours, stated that Rupert Murdoch had been found dead in his garden after taking a heavy dose of Palladium, a chemical element.
The full story reads:
“Rupert Murdoch, the controversial media mogul, has reportedly been found dead in his garden, police announce.
“Murdoch, aged 80, has said to have ingested a large quantity of palladium before stumbling into his famous topiary garden late last night, passing out in the early hours of the morning.
“We found the chemicals sitting beside a kitchen table, recently cooked,” one officer states. “From what we can gather, Murdoch melted and consumed large quantities of it before exiting into his garden.”
“Authorities would not comment on whether this was a planned suicide, though the general consensus among locals and unnamed sources is that this is the case.
“One detective elaborates. ‘Officers on the scene report a broken glass, a box of vintage wine, and what seems to be a family album strewn across the floor, containing images from days gone by; some containing handpainted portraits of Murdoch in his early days, donning a top hat and monocle.’
“Another officer reveals that Murdoch was found slumped over a particularly large garden hedge fashioned into a galloping horse. ‘His favourite’, a butler, Davidson, reports.
“Butler Davidson has since been taken into custody for additional questioning.”
Once the story had been posted LulzSec made www.thesun.co.uk redirect to their phony news story, leading most to believe they were actually on The Sun’s website. This message was then posted to their Twitter account:
“We have owned Sun/News of the World – that story is simply phase 1 – expect the lulz to flow in coming days.”
Their “fake Sun” website, new-times.co.uk, received so many hits in the space of 2 hours that it was overloaded and went offline. LulzSec then redirected the real Sun website to their own Twitter feed, meaning there was virtually no access to TheSun.co.uk.
“TheSun.co.uk now redirects to our twitter feed. Hello, everyone that wanted to visit The Sun! How is your day? Good? Good!”
Will LulzSec be back for good or is this a one off? What do you think of their actions? We’d love to hear your opinion, so share it with us by adding a comment below or tweeting us @Gadget_Helpline.