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LulzSec claims hacking the CIA was 'really very simple'

Headline-grabbing hackers LulzSec claim to have hacked a daring new target: the CIA. The cheeky scamps claim they brought down the Agency's website yesterday.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm
2 min read

Headline-grabbing hackers LulzSec claim to have hacked a daring new target: the CIA. The cheeky scamps behind recent online attacks on Nintendo and Sony claim they brought down the CIA's public-facing cia.gov website yesterday.

The Central Intelligence Agency, based in Langley, Virginia, is the US' shadowy overseas spy bureau. The public-facing website was inaccessible for parts of Wednesday, but the Agency has yet to confirm why. LulzSec says it wasn't even the outfit's biggest hack, involving "a very simple packet flood".

Before taking on Langley, LulzSec has been hitting corporate interests, breaching security at Nintendo and developers Bethesda. The attacks are intended to highlight the vulnerability of our data held by corporate interests, using gaming as a headline-grabbing way to get the masses thinking -- and protesting -- about security issues.

Indeed, the monocled mutineers of LulzSec claim they love many of the gaming companies they've spotlighted -- they say they'd work for Nintendo, and have promised not to actually release the data dug up in their various hacks. A notable exception is Sony, target of the hacker community's ire after coming down on hacker GeoHot like a tonne of bricks.

LulzSec claims to have stolen more than 1 million users' data from Sony recently, and this after the Japanese giant beefed up security in the wake of the disastrous PlayStation Network data breach that closed its online services for a month. Sony claims the real haul is less than half that number, but the damage is done.

But it's not all fun and games for LulzSec: the mysterious hacktivists are now sticking it to the man. The CIA attack is the latest adventure after the cheeky scamps hit the US Senate website and a security company affiliated to the FBI. LulzSec is clearly having fun and just getting started -- we only hope those involved haven't booked themselves an appointment with a length of rubber hose.

What do you make of LulzSec? Are they glorious digital freedom fighters or irresponsible troublemakers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.