The FBI announced Sunday it shut down an Atlanta-based website that tracks cyber-crime after the site was compromised by a mysterious, yet increasingly audacious group of hackers.
InfraGard Atlanta, a nonprofit partnership between local business, government and academic security experts and the FBI, was hacked late last week by Lulz Security. LulzSec, as it’s known on-line in cyber security channels, hijacked the InfraGard site and published the email addresses, usernames and passwords of its 180 members.
On its website, LulzSec wrote that the InfraGard volunteers – which include internet security experts at Equifax, Georgia Tech, the U.S. Army, DeKalb County and Alston & Bird – “are affiliated with the FBI in some way.”
Stephen Emmett, an FBI spokesman, said via email Sunday: “The FBI and its partners at the Atlanta Chapter (of) Infragard, a cyber security information sharing collaborative, are aware of the recent efforts to breach its Atlanta Chapter website. As a precaution, that website has been shut down.”
Emmett wouldn’t comment further. Emails sent to InfraGard and several of its members weren't immediately returned Sunday.
InfraGard’s hacking follows the cyber violation of some of the corporate and media world’s biggest names by little-known LulzSec. Game-maker Nintendo said Sunday a U.S. server had been hacked by LulzSec, though no private customer information was leaked.
LulzSec had earlier compromised the cyber security of Sony Pictures and the personal information of tens of thousands of its users. The hackers hit PBS last month, breaking into the broadcasting company’s servers and stealing numerous logins and passwords. It also posted a false news report on PBS.org claiming that rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls were alive.
LulzSec’s brand of cyber-anarchy defies easy description. Its website postings hint at a Merry Prankster-esque sense of fun and devilment. It relishes targeting poorly-protected corporate websites.
“We're LulzSec, a small team of lulzy individuals who feel the drabness of the cyber community is a burden on what matters: fun,” its website reads. “Considering fun is now restricted to Friday, where we look forward to the weekend, weekend, we have now taken it upon ourselves to spread fun, fun, fun, throughout the entire calender (sic) year.”
LulzSec’s PBS posting, though, was in response to the broadcaster’s documentary on WikiLeaks which the hackers claim was biased. The InfraGard hacking was even more overtly political.
The Obama administration has “recently upped the stakes with regard to hacking,” a website posting read. “They now treat hacking as an act of war.”
LulzSec hackers couldn’t be reached Sunday. On Twitter, though, they vow more cyber-attacks.
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