Lulz Security's reign of chaos has apparently come to an end, with the hacker group announcing it has disbanded in a 'final statement' to its followers.
The group released the following statement via a link on their Twitter feed:
"Friends around the globe,
We are Lulz Security, and this is our final release, as today marks something meaningful to us. 50 days ago, we set sail with our humble ship on an uneasy and brutal ocean: the Internet. The hate machine, the love machine, the machine powered by many machines. We are all part of it, helping it grow, and helping it grow on us.
For the past 50 days we've been disrupting and exposing corporations, governments, often the general population itself, and quite possibly everything in between, just because we could. All to selflessly entertain others - vanity, fame, recognition, all of these things are shadowed by our desire for that which we all love. The raw, uninterrupted, chaotic thrill of entertainment and anarchy. It's what we all crave, even the seemingly lifeless politicians and emotionless, middle-aged self-titled failures. You are not failures. You have not blown away. You can get what you want and you are worth having it, believe in yourself.
While we are responsible for everything that The Lulz Boat is, we are not tied to this identity permanently. Behind this jolly visage of rainbows and top hats, we are people. People with a preference for music, a preference for food; we have varying taste in clothes and television, we are just like you. Even Hitler and Osama Bin Laden had these unique variations and style, and isn't that interesting to know? The mediocre painter turned supervillain liked cats more than we did.
Again, behind the mask, behind the insanity and mayhem, we truly believe in the AntiSec movement. We believe in it so strongly that we brought it back, much to the dismay of those looking for more anarchic lulz. We hope, wish, even beg, that the movement manifests itself into a revolution that can continue on without us. The support we've gathered for it in such a short space of time is truly overwhelming, and not to mention humbling. Please don't stop. Together, united, we can stomp down our common oppressors and imbue ourselves with the power and freedom we deserve.
So with those last thoughts, it's time to say bon voyage. Our planned 50 day cruise has expired, and we must now sail into the distance, leaving behind - we hope - inspiration, fear, denial, happiness, approval, disapproval, mockery, embarrassment, thoughtfulness, jealousy, hate, even love. If anything, we hope we had a microscopic impact on someone, somewhere. Anywhere.
Thank you for sailing with us. The breeze is fresh and the sun is setting, so now we head for the horizon."
LulzSec first rose to prominence on June 3 when it hacked into servers running Sony Pictures Entertainment web sites. Over the next month, it gained attention with attacks on gaming web sites, the UK National Health Service (NHS), the US Senate, Arizona law enforcement agencies and the CIA. In most cases, information was stolen and then released to the public.
LulzSec netted its biggest haul on 16 June, with over 62,000 passwords and emails stolen and published online, including organisations in Australia. Although it didn’t confirm where the details were stolen from, security analysts claimed many had come from author web site Writerspace.com.
The timing of LulzSec's abrupt disbandment is interesting. Last week, the UK Metropolitan Police arrested 19-year-old Ryan Cleary, who has been charged with taking part in a distributed-denial-of-service attack against the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
The attack, which took place on the day of Cleary's arrest, was claimed by hacker group Lulz Security. LulzSec has denied that Cleary is directly involved with their group.
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Timeline: LulzSec hack attacks
