LulzSec Deny Census Hack

LulzSec, the notorious hacking outfit, has denied claims that it has hacked into the 2011 Census database on its Twitter account.

Many media reports circulating on Tuesday picked up on a message left on the PasteBin website on Monday that seemed to suggest the group had got the 2011 Census data and intended to publish it.

“We have blissfully obtained records of every single citizen who gave their records to the security-illiterate UK government for the 2011 census. We’re keeping them under lock and key though… so don’t worry about your privacy (…until we finish re-formatting them for release),” the message said.

However, PasteBin is a site that anyone can post to, and it seems that the LulzSec group are officially denying any responsibility.

“Not sure we claimed to hack the UK census or where that rumour started, but we assume it’s because people are stupider than you and I,” the group wrote on Twitter.

“I’m not seeing “we hacked the UK census” on our twitter feed or website… why does the media believe we hacked the UK census? Oh well, just because we want to waste government and local authority investigation time: we hacked every website in the world. Enjoy!”

Later, it added: “Just saw the pastebin of the UK census hack. That wasn’t us – don’t believe fake LulzSec releases unless we put out a tweet first.”

The group also appeared to pour scorn on the idea that one of its members had been arrested. “Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it’s all over now… wait… we’re all still here! Which poor bastard did they take down?” LulzSec tweeted.

The Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) on Monday detained a teenager following an investigation into network intrusions and distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks against “a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group.”

LulzSec has been on a widespread hacking campaign in the last few weeks, attacking sites belonging to the CIA, PBS.org, Fox.com and stealing data such as passwords and logins, before releasing the information on its website.