As if LulzSec’s hack of The Sun‘s website wasn’t embarrassment enough, the notorious hacktivist group behind claimed U.S. Congress and CIA takedowns says it plans to drop a bundle of hacked News International emails at some point soon, possibly even later today.
LulzSec timed its debilitating hack of The Sun last night—wherein it supplanted the paper’s homepage with a fake news story claiming Rupert Murdoch was dead (note: he wasn’t)—to the eve before embattled News Corp mucky muck Rupert Murdoch was to testify before Britain’s parliament (as he’s apparently done with verve this morning, or as fellow TIME scribe James Poniewozik joked on Twitter, “Yes, R Murdoch’s table-smacking sounds loud, but in fairness, his hands are quivering w repressed Sith lightning”).
(MORE: FBI Arrests 14 Suspects from Hacker Group ‘Anonymous’)
Murdoch, in case you’ve missed any of this, is testifying because of an allegedly widespread News of the World hacking scandal that has, to date, prompted the resignation of that paper’s editor and News International CEO Rebekah Brooks, Scotland Yard commissioner Paul Stephenson and Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton. Brooks, as well as former News of the World editors Andy Coulson and Neil Wallis, have also since been arrested.
And now, according to The Register, LulzSec bigwig “Sabu” has said the group’s been “sitting on emails of News International staffers that it planned to release on Tuesday.”
LulzSec’s already dropped what it claims is Rebekah Brooks’ email login info. I won’t repost it here (though it’s no doubt long since been changed), but according to IT blogger John Graham-Cummings, her password matched the phone number used for tip-offs by The Sun. Ruh-roh.
As for the alleged phone numbers of other News International executives also released, it looks like they may have come from a dated database, raising skepticism about the salience of whatever else LulzSec filched while it had access to The Sun‘s servers. Stand by, as we’ll probably know, one way or another, soon enough.
MORE: LulzSec Hacks ‘News of the World’ and ‘The Sun,’ Plants Fake Murdoch Death Story