Hackers could have attacked The Sun

HACKERS MIGHT HAVE exacted their own brand of revenge on Rupert Murdoch's scandal sheet The Sun, following its unflattering description of Ryan Cleary and Lulzsec.

This week The Sun covered the young man's arrest and then his allegedly hackerish lifestyle in a terribly unflattering style.

"The Sun is the shittest UK publication in existence: How many times can you use 'geek' and 'nerd' in one article?", the group tweeted, along with a link to a story about how Cleary, who has been accused as a member of Lulzsec, had been arrested.

It added, "If you don't kick, hit or throw some kind of sports-related object at least thirty-five times a week, you are a filthy recluse to The Sun."

Although Lulzsec acknowledged that Cleary did run some IRC channels used by the group, that seems to be as far as the relationship went. "Ignorant press have failed to realize that actual authorities - i.e. Scotland Yard - didn't imply in the slightest that Ryan was LulzSec", it added later.

However, the nature of attacks and the portrayal of the hacker lifestyle and Cleary himself were rather strong and it is not unreasonable to suggest that some might have taken offence at it, and, according to a report at the Guardian, some did.

This sort of thing, "A NERDY teenager was arrested yesterday on suspicion of masterminding a global computer hacking operation from his bedroom," and this, "Oddball student Ryan Cleary, 19, was held by cops," and this, "Geeky Cleary is also suspected of being the brains behind hacking raids... He allegedly did it all behind the closed curtains of his bedroom at his mum's extended bungalow," are not flattering, to say the least, and such news articles might have motivated a supportive denial of service attack against The Sun.

"A senior source within News International" spoke to the Guardian about the attack, which is said to have taken hold last night, and told it, "We haven't linked it to any particular coverage ... the infrastructure that was affected isn't linked to The Sun."

However, it is reasonable to suggest that this was a revenge attack, especially as its denial of service approach one of its most abundent though least effective weapons that Lulzsec has, by its own admission.

In a phone call with the INQUIRER, News International declined to comment on this story, saying only that it had "no official comment".

Meanwhile, the Office of National Statistics has claimed that early reports of attacks on UK census records were in fact a hoax.

"I can reassure the public that their census records are secure. We have strict measures in place protecting the nation's census information. The claim that hackers got in looks like a hoax and our investigation concluded that there is no sign of any suspicious activity. The alleged hackers have also denied any involvement," said the UK census director, Glen Watson.

"However, we are not complacent and will remain vigilant. The security and confidentiality of census data remain our top priority." µ