Over the weekend the Senate website became the latest in a growing line of individuals, groups, and websites targeted by a new collective of Internet mischief makers, Lulz Security.
The group posted what they referred to as “a small, just-for-kicks release of some internal data from Senate.gov” on their own site. The information appears to be a configuration file for the Senate’s main website according to a Dow Jones Newswire report. The newswire also claims that their analysis of the posted information suggest that no sensitive data was compromised in the breach.
An official representative from the Senate confirmed that the hack occurred but told the Dow Jones Newswire that the group did not access any information from within the firewall.
“The intruder did not gain access into the Senate computer network,” a spokesperson told the Newswire. “Although this intrusion is inconvenient, it does not compromise the security of the Senate’s network, its members or staff.”
“We don’t like the US government very much,” the group says in a message posted along with the compromised information. “Their boats are weak, their lulz are low, and their sites aren’t very secure. In an attempt to help them fix their issues, we’ve decided to donate additional lulz in the form of owning them some more!”
The group closed their statement by asking: “…is this an act of war, gentlemen? Problem?” An apparent homage to recent reports that the Pentagon would consider certain cyberattacks as acts of war.
LulzSec has been the recipient of wide media coverage in recent weeks after hacking and defacing PBS’s website in retaliation for the depiction of Wikileaks by PBS’s Frontline documentary program. After this, the group set its sights on Sony and the FBI among others.
