Hacked it for the L ulz

[PeteJ]

Figured a new thread was needed since the PSN one in Headlines is mostly for...well, the PSN.

Latest news then, claims that the UK Census Data has been hacked the group and they are going to upload it to Pirate Bay later. For the first time however the group have denied they are anything to do with it. Lockheed Martin, the company dealing with the Census, have yet to confirm the data is lost, however they were the big target following the RSA hack earlier in the year so have already proven to be...leakey.

If it has been lost...uh oh! Enough information to commit fraud for every* person in the UK is 'out there'.

*everyone who responded

Stories about the leader of the group being arrested have been denied by the group. They have however recently admited to hacking the FBI, CIA and earlier today, The Serious Organised Crime Unit within the Met Police.

I've just checked their twitter and it looks like they are now acting like WikiLeaks, asking that people feed them data so it can be leaked online anonymously. Unlike Wikileaks and Anonymous, they don't appear to have any adgenda other than to hack the world, and worryingly, they seem to be succeeding!

How long before they are arrested, and when they are caught what's to say another group isn't going to spring up and carry with their work?

(ignore me if everyone would rather this topic continue in the headlines thread )

edit - apparently the arrested hacker is Ryan Cleary, who was responsible for hacking Anonymous a while back. Though I just read that on NeoGaf, so it may not be true

[Fader209]

I'm kind of confused with their agenda.
At first I thought it was all about the mayhem and causing as much trouble as possible then I read into it a bit more and realised they were doing it all to highlight website weaknesses and make it all a better place.
Then I saw they were releasing data leaks to the masses....so yeah, guess it is chaos after all.

By all means attack the companies and sites for their poor security but why pick on the innocents who aren't involved?

[MisterBubbles]

Some of L ulz hierarchy want to step it up a gear and be as well know as anonymous, i'll say it once i'll say it again , people in anonymous and L ulz go get laid and drink so beer and pi$$ off while your at it.

[FelixofMars]

What I don't understand is according to one article when he split for Anon he wanted to prove how unsafe and insecure these sites where. But a bunch he just DDoS'd that isn't really proving the security is weak. Most of the forum stuff epic etc we know is flimsy anyway its not like much personal data is held on them. There is not much you can do about that kind of attack. I think the reason was because he could.

[Tig]

I'm kind of confused with their agenda.

I've been reading their Twitter feed, and I've concluded that their moral logic + motivations are broadly comparable to The Joker as portrayed in the last Batman film.

[huxley]

Despite their ambitions it goes to show that a lot of government and banking agencies need to tighten up their **** to say the least.
If the census stuff has for out I vote to sue the government for the lack of security and undue care.

[toythatkills]

What in the census data will allow people to commit fraud, exactly?

[Flabio]

Name, DOB and address is enough to apply for quite a lot of different kinds of credit...

[huxley]

Name / address it's enough for people to mail spam.
If it has got out I for one won't fill in the next one. Government agencies love to harp on about the data protection act etc.

[Flabio]

Given the next one isn't till 2021, they've got time to sort out some better security...

[huxley]

Given the next one isn't till 2021, they've got time to sort out some better security...

Lol one would hope

[koopatroopa90]

Isn't there talk of scrapping it altogether?

[Spatial]

What in the census data will allow people to commit fraud, exactly?

Along with the bits already mentioned, National Insurance number.

[FelixofMars]

Yep, its even less excusable than Sony. You expect them to have people paid to try to break the system and find these vulnerabilities and fix them. Although I guess if was outsourced then they aren't going to have as tight policys.

I assume MS etc have people paid to do this especially as they hired a hacker recently.

Despite their ambitions it goes to show that a lot of government and banking agencies need to tighten up their **** to say the least.
If the census stuff has for out I vote to sue the government for the lack of security and undue care.

[PeteJ]

There is enough in the Census to do a hell of a lot of damage, even though when you fill it out it doesn't feel like you are giving anything too personal away. Fraudsters can get your name, address, dob etc from various means if they really want to look, but this is bad because everything is held in one location.

Despite their ambitions it goes to show that a lot of government and banking agencies need to tighten up their **** to say the least.

A couple of years ago the government got fed up with losing data on trains, so came up with something called the Code of Connection (CoCo, also known as GSI). It's a pain in the arse in the way they've done it (double standards, mixed messages etc) but the idea is sound in that every government body has to meet certain security levels for certain types of data. It's pretty high security too, some of it is completely over the top but I guess our friends at the L'sec are making a point worth remembering. Unfortunately the government giants, Work and Pensions etc who actually forced this Code through, are the ones with the most catching up to do.

Interestingly, if a government body is found to have lost data, whether through an IT hack, an employee leaking or mistakenly sending to the wrong person, then there are big fines. An employee of a council recently faxed benefits information to the wrong phone number, and they were subsequently fined hundreds of thousands of pounds (a couple more examples here. If the Census is lost then Lockheed Martin are going to get an almighty bill.