Whether those within the Internet collective like it or not, the defining moment for them this year was the betrayal of Sabu that led to the arrests of various LulzSec members. After that point, Anonymous went on the offensive, but claimed that LulzSec was dead. They didn’t need a separate group acting under the Anonymous banner, Anonymous was enough.
Some people obviously disagreed with the sentiment and went about trying to revive LulzSec. It seems that those efforts have now been rewarded with the return of everybody’s favorite hackers. Announced through an inconspicuous YouTube channel, LulzSec announced its glorious return through a hilarious Star Wars parody that compared the FBI to Sith Lords and themselves as Jedi warriors fighting against the Empire that is the United States.
So what? LulzSec says they’re back and make a funny Star Wars parody. It really doesn’t mean anything, right? Well, you would be right except that the video goes on to claim that LulzSec has gotten their hands on some juicy information from various government servers. The amount of data totals out to 3 TB and comes from various sources including the State Department, ICE, Defense Intelligence Agency and other military sites. They also claim to have taken information from servers belonging to Syria, Colombian prisons and more.
Of course, this could all be just another attempt at somebody trying to get attention. LulzSec was apparently brought back to life back in March for Project Mayhem, but that all turned out to be a ruse. It remains to be seen if this one is legitimate or not.
To play devil’s advocate for a moment, however, this one at least seems the most legitimate of the bunch. All previous claims of return came with promises of attacking governments and whatnot, but they had nothing to show for it. This new video at least has proof, however questionable, to show that this might be the real deal.
The response from the various branches of Anonymous has been divided as expected. Some welcome back the group that put Anonymous on the map while others think it should be left alone out of respect for those that were arrested.
@Lulzsec. That would be an insult to @atopiary. No true Anon would try. But remember, remember #Anonymous
@AnonymousIRC is doing with the LulzSec name is no better than what various attentionwhores have been doing in the past weeks.
#anonymous our #LulzSec is BACK, Prepare yourselves Things are about to get lulzy, release coming soon #Lulzsec #Lulzleaks