Hacking Group LulzSec Attacks Nintendo, FBI Affiliate
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LulzSec strikes again. CREDIT: Twitter |
The hacking group LulzSec made its presence felt again this weekend, this time launching cyberattacks against the Japanese gaming giant Nintendo and the IT security company InfraGard, which is affiliated with the FBI.
Nintendo yesterday (June 5) said that hackers had accessed one of its U.S. servers, but that no company or consumer information was compromised, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Despite LulzSec's recent attacks — it stole and leaked data from the servers of Fox.com and Sony Pictures, and defaced three PBS websites — the Nintendo hack appears to be merely a prank.
[Hacking Group Attacks PBS Site for WikiLeaks Documentary]
In a June 5 Twitter post, @LulzSec wrote, "Re: Nintendo, we just got a config file and made it clear that we didn't mean any harm. Nintendo had already fixed it anyway.
Nintendo of America confirmed the hack in an email to SecurityNewsDaily, writing, "The protection of our customer information is our utmost priority. Therefore, we constantly monitor our security. This particular situation was a server configuration issue that we investigated and resolved a few weeks ago. The server contained no consumer information."
(Although LulzSec broke into the Sony Pictures site's servers last week and released some email addresses and passwords, the group has not been linked to the much more serious Sony PlayStation Network hack in April).
LulzSec's treatment of InfraGard, a company that helps provide IT security to the FBI, was not so innocent.
On Friday (June 3), LulzSec defaced InfraGard's website and leaked 700 megabytes of emails from the Atlanta-based company, including the personal info of 180 employees, the Register reported.
"I think InfraGard Atlanta are rebuilding their site. You know ... after we removed everything by accident when drunk," LulzSec boasted on Twitter.
LulzSec announced the InfraGard attack on its Twitter page with a vulgar spin on the term "#FF" or "follow Friday."
The Register suggested that LulzSec may have attacked InfraGard as "some sort of response" or retaliation for the announcements last month from President Barack Obama and the Pentagon that cyberattacks may be considered acts of war .
The name "LulzSec" combines "lulz," the Internet term for laughs or good times (derived from the acronym "LOL," for "laugh out loud"), and "sec," a common abbreviation of "security."
UPDATE: LulzSec is claiming to have developer code and an internal network map for Sony Music Entertainment, and has just posted them on BitTorrent sites for anyone to download. Traffic to the sites is so high SecurityNewsDaily has not been able to examine the files.
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