/ 15 June 2011

Sony hackers open hotline, engage in further mischief

Sony Hackers Open Hotline

A hacker group calling itself “Lulz Security” or LulzSec is flaunting its notoriety with a telephone hotline for people to call and suggest targets for cyber attacks.

“Our number has anywhere between five and 20 people ringing it every single second,” members of the group said in a message from a LulzSec Twitter account on Wednesday.

“We can forward it anywhere in the world,” they continued, in a string of tweets suggesting they were using the flood of calls to jam phone lines of companies in telephone versions of Internet “denial of service” attacks.

Lulz has been in the spotlight after taking credit for cyberattacks on high-profile companies including Sony and Nintendo.

Videogame companies appear to be favoured targets for the group, prompting some in the computer security industry to believe its members are young people up to japes, tricks and cockamamie antics rather than cyber crooks out for loot.

The hotline number spelled out “LULZSEC” and had an area code in the US state of Ohio.

When dialled, the number results in a recorded greeting, featuring a man speaking with an exaggerated French accent who explains that “Pierre Dubois and Francois Deluxe” are unavailable because they’re up to mischief on the Internet. — AFP