In honour of its thousandth tweet—and on the heels of compromising the websites of the CIA, US Senate, Sony, and more—the crew of the good ship LulzSec has presented the world with a manifesto, of sorts. So who is LulzSec? And is it they want?
Surprisingly, and contrary to previous indications, they’re not just in it for the lulz. Instead, according to the document, LulzSec is here to remind you that internet security is, well, kind of a joke:
This is what you should be fearful of, not us releasing things publicly, but the fact that someone hasn’t released something publicly. We’re sitting on 200,000 Brink users right now that we never gave out. It might make you feel safe knowing we told you, so that Brink users may change their passwords. What if we hadn’t told you? No one would be aware of this theft, and we’d have a fresh 200,000 peons to abuse, completely unaware of a breach.
Not that LulzSec is claiming much of a moral high ground. They may not be pulling the trigger (that we know of) but they gleefully supply the bullets:
Watching someone’s Facebook picture turn into a penis and seeing their sister’s shocked response is priceless. Receiving angry emails from the man you just sent 10 dildos to because he can’t secure his Amazon password is priceless. You find it funny to watch havoc unfold, and we find it funny to cause it. We release personal data so that equally evil people can entertain us with what they do with it.
It’s a peculiar breed of internet nihilism, in which nothing really matters and isn’t that hilarious? The larger takeaway for you, though, is that you’re vulnerable. We all are. And unless we drastically rethink the way we protect ourselves on the internet, we’re just sitting back, waiting until the USS Lulz points its cannons in our direction. [Pastebin via The Atlantic]