Vigilante Hackers Hit Broadcaster PBS

Hackers annoyed by US public broadcaster PBS’s recent documentary about Julian Assange and the controversial website Wikileaks have apparently staged an attack on the site’s web hosting servers and posted thousands of passwords from the show’s servers as well as a false news story.

The group, apparently upset at the “unfair” way the Wikileaks site, its key leak source and its founder Assange were portrayed in the show, posted a story that deceased rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G had actually been found alive, well, and living in New Zealand.

The group LulzSec (Lulz Security), a collection of hackers who apparently hack not for personal gain or group profit but rather for entertainment or notoriety (in an interview with Forbes, a member claimed they hacked for lulz and justice) claimed responsibility via Twitter for the hack and the story.  They also posted hundreds of email addresses, usernames, and passwords from PBS affiliates, bloggers, and independent journalists on PBS’s public chat pages.

The hacker group has become known recently for attacking organisations whose opinions or public broadcasts they disagree with, or who are high profile and whose hacking will gain publicity - for example, long-suffering Sony in Japan, or Fox Media, where they hacked Fox.com, changed LinkedIn profiles of some employees, and also accessed the Fox15 Twitter account.  Targets planned apparently include more Sony sites as well as US telecommunications giant AT&T. Individuals involved in web design and security for these companies will surely be kept busy.