Hacktivism is a form of politically focused hacking, with such famous names behind it as Anonymous and Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. LulzSec is a group, which has originated from Internet Feds, which on its own is a faction of the infamous Anonymous bloc. During a year of activity since group’s creation in May of 2011, LulzSec hacktivists managed to breach a number of websites, including those of Fox Broadcasting, PBS (Public Broadcasting System), Sony Pictures, and CIA. And even though LulzSec has always been treated as a group of hacktivist, who would much rather mock their targets than cause serious damage (LulzSec name derives from an acronym LOL, which stands for “laughing out loud”.), their activities are still treated as illegal, and will be punished by law.
All hacktivism attacks are based upon online vulnerabilities, and there is no way of telling what website could be hacked next, since there is no logical flow of actions. LulzSec has tampered with privacy of both government and corporate websites, which helped them to reach their self-proclaimed ethical goals. For this sole purpose, group’s members have performed denial of service attacks, website defacement jump-offs, swatting, email bombing, ID spoofing, and various other illegal actions which are punishable by law, defending personal and corporate privacy.
LulzSec group was unmasked in March of 2012, when the leader Hector Xavier Monsegur, a.k.a. Sabu, was caught, and member of the group were arrested. Immediately after that, Ryan Cleary (20) and Jake Davis (19) from Britain were charged for LulzSec’s hacking attacks targeted at international media companies, law firms and government agencies. Both pleaded guilty at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Monday, 25th June, 2012. Additionally to the charges, R. Cleary also admitted conveying attacks targeted at Pentagon, and could be suspecting charges from the U.S. government soon enough. Other two detainees, aged 25 and 17, did not acknowledge the guilt, and will go through the trial in 2013. All four suspects denied fraud incidents, and AP reports that the charges will be revised in the future trials.