Internet News Corp. Hacked by LulzSec, Top Witness in Hacking Case Found Dead
Jason Mick (Blog) - July 19, 2011 8:37 AM
Jason Mick (Blog) - July 19, 2011 8:37 AM
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Things are looking very bad for Rupert Murdoch and his son James, masters of the media empire News Corp. (NWS). When one of his tabloids News of the World was caught not only reportedly bribing English police officers, but also hacking into the phone accounts of celebrities, politicians, murder victims, and family members of dead soldiers, it caused an ever-expanding firestorm of wrath and criticism by the English public and caused Mr. Murdoch's advertisers to start dropping like flies
The last couple weeks have brought plenty of developments. The London police chief resigned, amid allegations he was involved with the bribery schemes. Mr. Murdoch has officially shuttered News of the World, formerly England's best-selling tabloid. Its chief Rebekah Brooks has been arrested. And Mr. Murdoch is set to be grilled today by England's Parliament. But even wilder events have occurred within the last 24 hours.
I. Rupert Murdoch Dead? Those LulzSec Scoundrels...
On Monday the homepage of The Sun, another English News Corp. tabloid, was hacked by famed hacker group LulzSec [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. The group hacked servers of The Times, the local New Corp. newspaper and then used them to host a fake version of The Sun, finishing the hack by forcing the homepage to redirect to The Times servers.
The cheeky hackers then posted a fake version of the tabloid which proclaimed:
Media moguls body discovered
Rupert Murdoch, the controversial media mogul, has reportedly been found dead in his garden, police announce.The first sentence contains what may be a shout-out to top Anonymous/LulzSec member "Topiary".
Murdoch, aged 80, has said to have ingested a large quantity of palladium before stumbling into his famous topiary garden...
After the traffic to the story overwhelmed The Times servers, LulzSec redirected The Sun homepage to their Twitter account. The group brags in a Twitter post:
This was the work of Lulz Security, dear media. We would like to give a shout-out to our bros at @AnonymousIRC though, we love those guys!LulzSec also claims to have hacked into News of the World's mail servers. They posted the phone numbers of a handful of high profile employees in their Twitter feed, and claim to be preparing a major release for today.
Arrest us. We dare you. We are the unstoppable hacking generation and you are a wasted old sack of shit, Murdoch. ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER!
This is the second hack of News Corp. by LulzSec. Early in its campaign, the group hacked the services of Fox in the U.S.
As of this morning The Sun was still down, another blow to Mr. Murdoch's media empire.
II. Top Whistleblower in Case Found Dead
In related news, Sean Hoare, a reporter who blew the whistle on many details of his former employer News of the World's misdeeds was found dead yesterday, in a scene straight out of a Francis Coppola novel.
British Police told The Guardian, "At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after. The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."
Mr. Hoare is reportedly known for a history of drug and alcohol issues, however, the timing of his death will surely delight conspiracy theorists as just early this week he was dishing dirt to The New York Times.
His death is unlikely to significantly affect the case against Mr. Murdoch's empire, though.
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