Hacking collective redirect Sun website to fake story claiming Rupert Murdoch had been found dead – before redirecting site to the LulzSec Twitter account

The LulzSec collective hacked the Sun's website and redirected it to another hacked page falsely reporting that Rupert Murdoch had been found dead.

LulzSec also claimed to be "sitting on their [the Sun's] emails" and that they would release the emails on Tuesday. They tweeted what they claimed was Rebekah Brooks's email address at the Sun, and said they knew her password combination.

LulzSec put up the fake page after they found a way into the News International system and changed the code for the breaking news banner on the Sun's site. When the Sun page refreshed, readers were redirected to a fake page on the New Times site at new-times.co.uk/sun.

The hoax story suggested Murdoch had taken the radioactive poison palladium before "stumbling into his famous topiary garden late last night".

The page later redirected to LulzSec's Twitter account.

"This is only the beginning. **** you Murdoch. You are next," tweeted the person behind the LulzSec Twitter account – thought to be the member known as Topiary, a Swedish-born citizen who lives in the Netherlands.

The episode demonstrated that News International's systems have been vulnerable to hackers for some time. Rumours had surfaced that the hacking collective Anonymous would hit the site last week, but nothing appeared to come of it.

LulzSec, a group of about six hackers, had announced last month it was disbanding, but it has seemingly reformed to attack News International.

"We have owned Sun/News of the World – that [Murdoch] story is simply phase 1 – expect the lulz [laughs] to flow in coming days," Topiary tweeted from the LulzSec account.

Another member of LulzSec, Sabu, had earlier in the day begun tweeting email addresses, passwords and names of former News International staff, including Bill Akass, the News of the World's managing editor, and Joe Campbell of the Sun. It is not known whether the claimed passwords were correct.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011...hacked-lulzsec