14 DAY TRIAL // LulzSec, the group of hackers that recently made the news headlines with cyber attacks against Sony and PBS, has hacked into the Atlanta chapter of InfraGard, an organization set up as a partnership between private businesses and the FBI.
InfraGard's purpose is to facilitate the sharing of counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cybercrime information between private companies and the federal law enforcement agency.
The organization currently has over 40,000 members and local chapters all over the United States; sometimes multiple ones in one state.
LulzSec defaced the infragardatlanta.org website and leaked its user database in response to the Obama administration's recent decision to treat hacking as an act of war.
"While not very many logins (around 180), we'd like to take the time to point out that all of them are affiliated with the FBI in some way," the hackers write in their announcement.
Up until this point, given the group's colorful language and the constant references to Internet memes, people suspected that LulzSec are just a bunch of guys having fun at Sony's expense.
However, an attack against an organization directly connected to the FBI is a clear escalation and suggests that these hackers are prepared to get much more serious. They even posted a message that reads: "We accept your threats, NATO. Game on, losers."
Even former-FBI-hunted-hacker-turned-security-superstar Kevin Mitnick agrees that this latest attack is serious business. "Lulzsec apparently hacked the FBI infragard web site. Talk about poking the tiger," he writes on Twitter.
LulzSec are not very fond of whitehats, and they make this very clear in their public announcement. Information obtained as a result of this attack allowed them to access the email of a cyber security company's CEO, who, they claim, has assisted the U.S. government in attacking Libya's cyber infrastructure.
