Infamous hacker group Lulz Security, or LulzSec as they are commonly known, has identified its latest victim as none other than the United States Senate. Authorities have confirmed that the server that contains the data for the Senate’s public website was compromised, but insists that the private Senate files are intact and untouched. A spokesperson for the Senate described the attack as being inconvenient, but ultimately harmless, as no staff private records were accessed, nor was any private information from user accounts. LulzSec posted the files they accessed to prove that the breach was real and that they had in fact accessed the Senate server, but none of the files they posted appeared to be of a sensitive nature.
The hacking appeared to be an attempt to mock the US government for its claims that it would consider cyber attacks as an act of war. The government said it would have the right to respond to any hacking with force if the attacks were discovered to be the work of a foreign nation. In a press release on the LulzSec website, the group took responsibility for the breach, saying “We don’t like the US government very much… their sites aren’t very secure… this is a small, just-for-kicks release of some internal data from Senate.gov – is this an act of war, gentlemen?”
Senate technology staff have taken action to fix their security issues, and have indicated that law enforcement authorities have been informed about the breach and will be taking appropriate action. This latest LulzSec attack follows similar ones on PBS, Fox, and Sony, none of which have resulted in any kind of legal retribution. The Senate has now said it will review the security on all its servers, public and private, and will take the necessary steps to ensure no further hacking attempts are successful.