Murdoch tabloid hacked by LulzSec

This story originally appeared on CNET.

The LulzSec hacker group has turned its sights on Rupert Murdoch's U.K. newspaper The Sun, hacking the site to direct visitors to a fake article claiming the media mogul had died.

The group announced on Twitter that "The Sun's homepage now redirects to the Murdoch death story on the recently-owned New Times website. Can you spell success, gentlemen?"

The New Times site was inaccessible this afternoon, but screenshots captured before it was taken off line show a headline that says "Media Moguls Body Discovered" and a story that said he had taken a large quantity of palladium, a metal that resembles platinum.

"Officers on the scene report a broken glass, a box of vintage wine, and what seems to be a family album strewn across the floor, containing images from days gone by; some containing handpainted portraits of Murdoch in his early days, donning a top hat and monocle," the fake news article said in an obvious reference to the LulzSec mascot.

Meanwhile, The Sun site later redirected to LulzSec's Twitter feed.

News International, publisher of News of the World, released a statement, but the page redirected to LulzSec's Twitter feed. "So News International released this AMAZING statement on The Sun: We improved it for them though!" the hackers said in a tweet, followed by: "Oh, we forgot to mention that we sailed over to News International and wrecked them too. Nearing 300,000 followers...full steam ahead!" The News International site was indeed inaccessible this afternoon.

Murdoch's media empire is embroiled in a scandal in which journalists and others working for the now-defunct News of the World allegedly hacked into mobile phone systems to listen to voice mails of news subjects, including celebrities, members of the royal family, murder victims, soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and people who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.