LulzSec’s New Weapon: Crowdsourced Phone DoS?

LulzSec, an internet hacking group, is known for launching denial-of-service (DoS) attacks against websites. Some of its recent victims include The Escapist, Minecraft, League of Legends, and EVE Online.

A DoS attack essentially floods a system with bogus requests, thereby denying services to legitimate users.

Now, LulzSec may have a new weapon: crowdsourced phone DoS.

The group, in addition having a Twitter account and website, now has a phone number at 646-LULZ-SEC (585-9732). It claims to receive “anywhere between 5-20 [phone calls] every single second.”

The primary purpose of this number is to take requests for hacking targets. As of Tuesday night, the group claims to have fulfilled 8 user requests.

Now, it’s using its flood of incoming phone calls to conduct phone DoS attacks on target phone numbers. Its first target is HBGAry, a cybersecurity company. It subsequently claimed to target Magnets.com, World of Warcraft customer support, and the FBI in Detroit.

LulSec’s crowdsourced DoS had a key conceptual difference with most DoS attacks: its participants are volunteers spurred by “lulz” while most DoS use the hacked resources of unwitting participants.