Lulzsec, the anonymous anti-security task force responsible for hacking Sony Pictures, Nintendo, EVE Online, Minecraft, and The Escapist, announced today that its 50-day tour of internet pillaging has come to an end.

In a press release posted on The Pirate Bay, the team of six hackers used confusing metaphors about Hitler and cats (seriously) to justify their attacks, citing the "chaotic thrill of entertainment and anarchy" as their main motivation. While the group claims that they had always planned to call it quits after 50 days, we think this retreat has more to do with the British arrest of 19-year-old Ryan Cleary.

Lulzsec's six hackers hope that their "movement" can continue without them, writing, "Together, united, we can stomp down our common oppressors and imbue ourselves with the power and freedom we deserve." We don't know about you guys, but we can't remember ever feeling oppressed by Super Mario Bros.

LulzSec released a data torrent via the Pirate Bay web site that has info from a number of sources. As reported on the Rock Paper Shotgun web site, the biggest file comes from Electronic Arts' free-to-play shooter Battlefield Heroes. The file download contains personal info for 550,000 users of that game.

Of course this is not the first time that LulzlSec has gone after a gaming related web site or service. It also went after the Minecraft site, shut down the MMO EVE Online for a time, and even attacked the US online servers for Nintendo, among many other attacks in the past 50 days.

The data dump also has info for 200,000 users of the Hackforums.com web site and personal info from 50,000 people who have posted on various gaming forums. There was also some internal data released that came from AT&T and AOL as well as info from 12,000 members of the NATO Bookshop web site.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/26/lulzsec-doffs-its-gray-hat-your-games-are-safe-for-now/#continued

Posted: Jun 26, 2011 11:30 am