Apparently no one is safe from the wrath of LulzSecurity, the notorious rogue hacker group who claimed the recent high-profile attacks on Sony Pictures Website and Nintendo’s servers. Now, their targets are set on the U.S. Government after hacking into the Senate’s website and even going as far as taking down the CIA’s site, which was restored shortly afterward.

The group is apparently motivated by hacktivist culture and fueled by the amount of amusement – or “lulz” – that they can generate by causing mayhem on the internet. To bring down the Central Intelligence Agency’s website on Wednesday, LulzSecurity used a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack which uses computers to flood the targeted site with so much traffic that it causes it to go offline. It is suggested that LulzSec probably did not steal any sensitive information from the breach on the government websites and while this is reassuring, it doesn’t bode well for those who were among one of the 26,000 e-mail addresses and passwords that the group recently leaked.

Mashable mentions, “One thing separates LulzSec from many other similar groups, however: Its members are actively communicating with users, and they love the attention. And with a high-profile site being attacked almost daily in the past several weeks, we’re sure we’ll hear more about LulzSec in future.” LulzSec is active on the social media site Twitter and has even created a telephone hotline service which invites users to request potential targets for the group to attack in the future.

Although LulzSec may be amusing themselves for the time being, the CIA has surely taken notice of the group and will likely be the ones having the last laugh.

Photo by Stan Schroeder via Mashable