LULZSEC LEAVES BEHIND ONE LAST PARTING SHOT WITH MALWARE, TROJANS AND VIRII

The small group of hackers known as Lulz Security, or simply “LulzSec,” would never disband without one final round of fun. BGR reported on Monday that the group’s reign of terror was coming to an end after 50 lul-filled days. During that period of time, LulzSec released data stolen in a series of online breaches with targets ranging from Sony to the U.S. Government.

In its coup de grâce, LulzSec released a stash of stolen data from a variety of targets, including AT&T, Disney and the U.S. Navy. But data obtained through online breaches wasn’t the only thing LulzSec stuffed into the file; a directory named “BootableUSB” also contained a variety of malware including trojans and worms. While “LulzSec” is no more and its notorious Twitter account now sits dormant, members of the well-known hacktivism group “Anonymous Operations” have confirmed that LulzSec is gone in name only — the six LulzSec members have been absorbed by Anonymous, according to the group’s official Twitter feed.

$500,000 STOLEN IN BITCOIN HEIST

You may not have heard of BitCoin, but you’re probably going to start hearing about it a whole lot more often now that a major theft has taken place. The decentralized digital currency has gained prominence in geeky circles because of its privacy-protecting nature. Like the Dollar, Pound, Yen, or indeed any traditional currency, the market value of a BitCoin can fluctuate. Recently, BitCoin’s value had skyrocketed, up to nearly $30 US from $5 in a span of about a month.

That got investors interested in BitCoin, and where there’s high-profile investing going on you can bet there’ll be some spear phishing as well — especially in an online community which has gained a reputation for being frequented by malicious hackers and cybercriminals. It’s also no difficult task to locate possible targets, thanks to the availability of information like this list of wallets with balances of 20,000 coins or more. BitCoin Wallet information isn’t encrypted when stored on a user’s hard drive, so access — such as that provided by a successful phishing exploit — is all that’s required. Once the .DAT file has been retrieved, the deed is done and a criminal needs only to find willing buyers for his or her ill-gotten coinage.

Interestingly, because of the way BitCoin works we’re actually able to take a look at the theft of funds which shifted more than 25,000 BitCoins — valued at around $20 each at the time. Any personally identifiable information is hashed, however, so the perpetrator remains anonymous at this point — though the victim has come forward on BitCoin forums seeking help.

PLAYSTATION NETWORK HACKED, PERSONAL INFORMATION STOLEN

On Tuesday, Sony issued an update explaining the recent PlayStation Network and Qriocity outages. The company said it has discovered that between April 17th and April 19th, someone broke into its network and stole user information. In an effort to stop the security breach, Sony temporarily killed access to its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, hired a security firm to investigate, and started beefing up its security measures. However, the leaked information may be alarming to PlayStation network users. Here’s part of Sony’s statement:

We believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained.

Sony said that it doesn’t think credit card data was taken, but that it will not rule out the possibility, and says that it’s possible credit card numbers – excluding the security codes – may have been obtained by the intruders. The firm advises that its customers “remain vigilant” by closely monitoring credit statements. Sony says the services will be reactivated as soon as possible and that customers can dial 1-800-345-7669 with any questions.