14 DAY TRIAL // Infamous hacker group Lulz Security (aka LulzSec) has just announced that it has retired from the hacking scene, but, in order to offer a proper farewell gift to its fans, has released a brand new batch of personal user names and emails from various data bases, ranging from Electronic Arts' Battlefield Heroes free-to-play shooter to AT&T or the NATO online bookshop.
Hacking has been a hot topic in recent months, with the PlayStation Network being taken down by Sony after a malicious attack, while hacker group LulzSec attacked all sorts of companies and websites.
We've seen the group tackle TV channels like Fox, large corporations like Sony or Bethesda or online games like Minecraft or EVE Online, and then releasing data, including user names and passwords, via bittorrent, for anyone to download and then use for all sorts of things.
Now, after 50 days of hacking and much "lulz" (aka laughs), LulzSec has announced that it has now retired from the scene, and won't attack anyone or anything else.
"We are Lulz Security, and this is our final release, as today marks something meaningful to us," said the group in a formal statement. "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."
Before the self-imposed retirement goes into effect, however, LulzSec offered a farewell gift to its fans, releasing around 500MB of user information, including data from large American telecommunication company AT&T, as well as IP addresses from Sony, Viacom, Disney or NBC Universal.
What's more, the group attacked another gaming target, in the form of Electronic Arts, releasing 550,000 user names and passwords from its free-to-play Battlefield Heroes shooter.
Other information includes 200,000 user names and passwords from a hacker forum, 12,000 names, user names and passwords from the NATO online bookshop, as well as lots of other data from several video game forums.
It's unclear how much of this information was encrypted, but, if you used any of the aforementioned websites or services, perhaps it would be for the best if you changed your password.