Rupert Murdoch may have been secretly pleased that hacker group Lulzsec attacked The Sun's website yesterday (visitors were briefly re-directed to a spoof site with a story headlined "Media moguls [sic] body discovered").
Rupert Murdoch may have been secretly pleased that hacker group Lulzsec attacked The Sun’s website yesterday (visitors were briefly re-directed to a spoof site with a story headlined "Media moguls [sic] body discovered").
The stunt provided News Corp with a rare opportunity to play the victim – and further confused US media coverage over who’s been hacking, and who’s been hacked.
But Mr Murdoch may be less pleased with Lulzsec’s follow-up.
The “hackivist” group said today that it also breached The Sun’s email system, and will release “a big Murdoch email archive” late Tuesday (Wednesday morning NZ time).
Brooks' password revealed
To prove its bona fides, Lulsec released what it said were Rebekah Brooks’ login details.
According to the hacker collective, Ms Brooks used The Sun’s story-tip line – 63000 – as her password.
(Ms Brooks was editor of News of the World from 2000 to 2003 before becoming editor of the Sun from 2003 to 2009. She was then promoted to chief executive of News Corp’s UK newspaper division, News International, until her resignation earlier this week, which followed shortly after her arrest).
The revelation of Ms Brooks' password - assuming it's correct - may help police in their investigation of a computer found in a bag in a bin near the former News Corp exec's apartment.
Lulzsec also released partial login details for Bill Akass a former News of the World managing editor.
Mobile phone numbers posted to Twitter
The hacker group has already released the mobile phone numbers of three News Corp executives – although according to a Telegraph report they were out-of-date. But it doesn’t seem they were wildly so: one was for Pete Picton, a former online editor who last year went to work for Mr Murdoch’s iPad-only publication, The Daily, in New York. The Daily was launched in February.
News International email taken offline
According to a Guardian report, News International took its email systems offline on Monday night and reset all staff passwords.
Webmail, and email access from Android, iPhone and iPad, was temporarily suspended for all employees.
However, it was not clear if the action was in response to an actual security breach, or a precautionary measure.
News Corp. itself may not know for sure.
But like the rest of the world, it may find out later today.
