LulzSec explains why it's gone on hack rampage

The still-mysterious group which claims to be behind several big hacks recently at PBS, Sony and now, apparently, the CIA, has finally issued an explanation of sorts for its online rampage.

In a mocking - dare we say persnickety? - post on Friday, LulzSecurity issued a "Dear Internets" missive laying out the reasons justifying their digital jihad. Read through the post for the full narrative but the basic thrust is that, yes, it's our fault for being too lackadaisical about online security.

"Do you feel safe with your Facebook accounts, your Google Mail accounts, your Skype accounts? What makes you think a hacker isn't silently sitting inside all of these right now, sniping out individual people, or perhaps selling them off? You are a peon to these people. A toy. A string of characters with a value."

"This is what you should be fearful of, not us releasing things publicly, but the fact that someone hasn't released something publicly. We're sitting on 200,000 Brink users right now that we never gave out. It might make you feel safe knowing we told you, so that Brink users may change their passwords. What if we hadn't told you? No one would be aware of this theft, and we'd have a fresh 200,000 peons to abuse, completely unaware of a breach."

Not much is known about the Lulzites, who first popped up on the radar after attacking the website operated by Fox television's "X Factor." That was followed by other hacking successes it claimed against various Sony properties. It also defaced a PBS website in apparent retaliation for a documentary it found critical of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

So what's their M.O? The post doesn't shed much light on an answer, though the mocking nature of the narrative fits with the group's previous in-your-face calling cards.

"This is the lulz lizard era, where we do things just because we find it entertaining. Watching someone's Facebook picture turn into a penis and seeing their sister's shocked response is priceless. Receiving angry emails from the man you just sent 10 dildos to because he can't secure his Amazon password is priceless. You find it funny to watch havoc unfold, and we find it funny to cause it. We release personal data so that equally evil people can entertain us with what they do with it."

Nothing even remotely political about that statement, which fits with the group's previous statements about its myriad exploits. Could it be that we're simply dealing with a group of merry pranksters with a particular delight in making cyber-life miserable for the rest of us? To wit:

"Most of you reading this love the idea of wrecking someone else's online experience anonymously. It's appealing and unique, there are no two account hijackings that are the same, no two suddenly enraged girlfriends with the same expression when you admit to killing prostitutes from her boyfriend's recently stolen MSN account."

In other words, welcome to an increasingly wild cyber age. Strap in.