A timeline of Lulz Security's international hacking spree:
— Early May: LulzSec sets up shop on Twitter and claims its first series of hacks, leaking what it says is a database of "X Factor" contestants and attacking Fox.com.
— May 30: LulzSec breaks into the website of the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, posting a phony story claiming that dead rapper Tupac Shakur is actually alive in New Zealand. The hack came after the broadcaster aired a documentary seen as critical of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. PBS's ombudsman defends the program's treatment of Assange as "tough but proper."
— June 2: LulzSec announces that it has broken into Sony Pictures Entertainment, posting the usernames, passwords, email addresses and phone numbers of tens of thousands of people, many of whom had given the company their information for sweepstakes draws. The group said it had compromised about 1 million accounts but could only leak a small selection. Sony calls in the FBI.
— June 3: The hackers strike again, this time announcing that they've stolen about 180 passwords from the Atlanta chapter of an FBI partner organization called InfraGard. The group also claims to have used one of the passwords to steal nearly 1,000 emails from Unveillance LLC, an Internet surveillance company in Delaware. Among the emails is a report outlining how Libya's oil infrastructure could be compromised by sophisticated computer viruses.
— June 10: LulzSec leaks what it says is a database of email addresses and passwords belonging to users of an established pornography website. A handful appear to belong to U.S. Army personnel.
— June 13: LulzSec attacks the U.S. Senate, although there doesn't appear to be much damage. A law enforcement official says that a public-facing server was accessed and that no other files were breached. The group also claims to have stolen information on more than 200,000 users from video game company Bethesda Softworks, which makes games such as "Brink" and "Fallout: New Vegas."
— June 16: LulzSec claims responsibility for technical problems with the CIA's public website.
— June 20: LulzSec claims to have hit another branch of InfraGard — this time in Connecticut — compromising several hundred more accounts. The group also claims responsibility for bringing down the public website of Britain's FBI equivalent, the Serious Organized Crime Agency.
— June 21: A 19-year-old Brit is arrested on suspicion of cybercrime following a joint FBI-Scotland Yard investigation. He's later charged with attacking the Serious Organized Crime Agency. British police have hailed the arrest as a significant development, but LulzSec says his involvement with the group was only tangential. The teen has yet to enter a plea.
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Sources: The Associated Press, Lulz Security.
