█ The Summer That Broke the Internet
50 DAYS OF LULZ — MAY 7 TO JUNE 26, 2011
Seven hackers. Fifty days. Targets included Fox News, PBS, Sony, the CIA, the US Senate, the UK's SOCA, and the FBI. They announced their dissolution with a final data dump and left one tweet standing: "You cannot arrest an idea."
█ The OG Crew — Full Profiles
White Hat
SABU
Hector Xavier Monsegur — New York City
Co-founder and de facto leader. Grew up in the Lower East Side projects. Turned FBI informant the day after his arrest. Helped prevent 350+ attacks. Now Director at Rhino Security Labs.
Consultant
TOPIARY
Jake Davis — Shetland Islands, UK
The voice of LulzSec. Wrote every press release in Notepad without planning. Ran the Twitter account. Arrested at 18 on a remote Scottish island. His last tweet still stands: "You cannot arrest an idea."
White Hat
TFLOW
Mustafa Al-Bassam — Baghdad/London
16 years old during the entire 50 Days. Most technically gifted member. Suspended sentence. Went on to Forbes 30 Under 30, a Facebook acquisition, PhD at UCL, and co-founded Celestia Labs.
NCA Advisor
KAYLA
Ryan Ackroyd — London, UK
Former British soldier who posed online as a 16-year-old girl named "Kayla." Responsible for some of LulzSec's most sophisticated intrusions including suspected US Senate access. Later appeared in NCA #CyberChoices campaign.
Low Profile
PWNSAUCE
Darren Martyn — Ireland
OWASP Ireland chapter leader who resigned one week before his arrest. The irony of an ethical security leader being indicted for hacking is almost too perfect. Largely out of the public eye since release.
Never Caught
AVUNIT
Identity Unknown
The ghost of LulzSec. Left the group early after the "Fuck the FBI Friday" action. The only one of the core seven never identified. 14 years later, still unknown. The one who got away completely clean.
█ The 50 Days — Key Moments
May 7, 2011
Fox News Attack
LulzSec hacks Fox.com and leaks 73,000 email addresses. The Summer of Lulz begins.
May 30, 2011
PBS Hack
In retaliation for a Frontline documentary on WikiLeaks, LulzSec hacks PBS and posts a fake story claiming Tupac is alive in New Zealand.
June 2, 2011
Sony Pictures
1 million Sony Pictures user accounts exposed. "Sony stored over 1,000,000 passwords of its customers in plaintext." The responsible disclosure that wasn't.
June 13, 2011
US Senate
senate.gov breached. "We don't like the US government very much." Files published publicly.
June 16, 2011
CIA Website DDoS
The CIA's public website taken offline. "Tango down — cia.gov — for the lulz."
June 26, 2011
50 Days of Lulz — Final Release
LulzSec announces dissolution. Final data dump released. Topiary deletes everything from Twitter except one tweet: "You cannot arrest an idea."
"YOU CANNOT ARREST AN IDEA."
— TOPIARY (JAKE DAVIS) — FINAL TWEET — JULY 2011