Hacking group LulzSec is claiming to be behind a hack attack on The Sun website which redirected many visitors to a hoax article claiming Rupert Murdoch had been found dead in his garden.
Under the headline “Media moguls (sic) body discovered”, the report went on “Murdoch, 80, has said to have ingested a large quantity of palladium before stumbling into his famous topiary garden late last night, passing out in the early hours of the morning.”
The breach caused many people visiting thesun.co.uk to be redirected to www.new-times.co.uk/sun/, which contained the story. It also affected several other Murdoch-owned sites, with The Times, The Sunday Times, newsinternational.co.uk, and rupertmurdoch.co.uk suffering outages that made them inaccessible.
The redirections didn’t work consistently, making it possible for many Sun visitors to reach the real site as intended. The prankster hackers have also claimed responsibility for attacks on Sony, the Central Intelligence Agency, and other high-profile targets.
The hack comes as the furore over News International has claimed the scalps of the UK’s most senior police officers, Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and the Met’s assistant chief constable John Yates.
From midday today, Stephenson will answer questions from the Commons home affairs committee. Yates will speak to MPs at 13.15, while Rupert and James Murdoch face questions from the Commons culture committee starting at 14:30. Ex-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks is to be questioned from 15:30.
