Not content to shutter themselves and actually go away, in spite of ending their hacking spree of 50 days with a goodbye tweet, LulzSec has thrust themselves into a new era of hacking. Perhaps emboldened by world governments’ inability to stop them during their first round; they’re back for more and they continue to take bites out of juicy targets. Recently, LulzSec and Anonymous (through a media proxy @AnonymousIRC) jointly posted a reply to statements made by the FBI and other world authorities in the wake of multiple arrests covering an international theater.

National Public Radio (NPR) recently ran an article about the 16 arrests made Tuesday stemming from a series of morning FBI search warrant raids entitled: FBI Tries To Send Message With Hacker Arrests. This article, along with statements made by the FBI, caught the collective attention of LulzSec and Anonymous and spurred them into a response. The reply, tweeted by @LulzSec corroborates with @AnonymousIRC, points to the hacker group’s famous Pastebin press-release and contains an almost-manifesto that harkens back to their previous mentions as to why they’re active and what they do.

The comment from the FBI that they seem most chafed by happens to be, “We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable, [even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it’s entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts.” Which, in truth, is exactly what Lulz Security and others are up to—after all, they’re evincing criminal activity through hacking and disrupting services in order to make their statements.

LulzSec’s reply reflects their manifesto-like thinking alongside the “dysfunctional social service” elements of their behavior. They claim to be uncovering bad actions by governments and authorities through their hacking. Not many “for the lulz” statements in this Pastebin presser, which puts much of their previous communication on its ear.

Not only does the statement suggest that LulzSec has returned from their hiatus; but it also includes the common motto of Anonymous: “Expect us.”

Lulz Security has made their fame by living in the public spotlight and being an extremely talkative criminal enterprise, angling for the folk-hero vigilante spin from their publicity no doubt. The search warrants, and subsequent arrests, netted a total of sixteen individuals—most of whom the media received with not just legal names, but hacker aliases (handles) when they published the information on the arrests. The search warrants seem to have risen out of the attacks on MasterCard and other targets during the Julian Assange and Wikileaks saga.

Here is the full text of the LulzSec Pastebin press release,

Hello thar FBI and international law authorities,

We recently stumbled across the following article with amazement and a certain amount of amusement:

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/20/138555799/fbi-arrests-alleged-anonymous-hackers

The statements made by deputy assistant FBI director Steve Chabinsky in this article clearly seem to be directed at Anonymous and Lulz Security, and we are  happy to provide you with a response.

You state:

“We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable,  [even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it’s entirely  unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts.”

Now let us be clear here, Mr. Chabinsky, while we understand that you and your colleagues may find breaking into websites unacceptable, let us tell you what WE find unacceptable:

* Governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece.

* Corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments while taking advantage at the same time by collecting billions of funds for federal contracts we all know they can’t fulfil.

* Lobby conglomerates who only follow their agenda to push the profits higher, while at the same time being deeply involved in governments around the world with the only goal to infiltrate and corrupt them enough so the status quo will never change.

These governments and corporations are our enemy. And we will continue to fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies.

We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea. Any attempt to do so will make your citizens more angry until they will roar in one gigantic choir. It is our mission to help these people and there is nothing – absolutely nothing – you can possibly to do make us stop.

“The Internet has become so important to so many people that we have to ensure that the World Wide Web does not become the Wild Wild West.”

Let me ask you, good sir, when was the Internet not the Wild Wild West? Do you really believe you were in control of it at any point? You were not.

That does not mean that everyone behaves like an outlaw. You see, most people do not behave like bandits if they have no reason to.

We become bandits on the Internet because you have forced our hand. The Anonymous bitchslap rings through your ears like hacktivism movements of the 90s. We’re back – and we’re not going anywhere. Expect us.