LulzRaft is the name of a

computer hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

group or individual that gained international attention in 2011 due to a series of high-profile attacks on Canadian websites. Their targets have included the

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...

and

Husky Energy Husky Energy Inc. is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It operates in Western and Atlantic Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region, with upstream and downstream business segm ...

. On June 7, 2011, LulzRaft claimed responsibility for a hacking into the Conservative Party of Canada website and posting a false story about Canadian Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

. The hackers posted an alert on the site claiming that Harper had choked on a

hash brown Hash browns, also spelled hashed browns, are a popular American and British breakfast food, consisting of finely chopped potatoes that have been fried until browned. Hash browns first started appearing on breakfast menus in New York City in th ...

while eating breakfast and was airlifted to

Toronto General Hospital The Toronto General Hospital (TGH) is a major teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the flagship campus of University Health Network (UHN). It is located in the Discovery District of Downtown Toronto along University Avenue's Hospital ...

. The story fooled many, including Canadian MP

Christopher Alexander Christopher Wolfgang John Alexander (4 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an Austrian-born British-American architect and design theorist. He was an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His theories about the nature o ...

, who spread the story on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. A spokesman for the Prime Minister soon denied the story. LulzRaft again targeted the Conservative Party on June 8, taking responsibility for a successful breach of a database containing information about the party's donors. The information accessed by the group including the names of donors as well as their home and e-mail addresses. LulzRaft later stated that the party had "terrible security" and that for the intrusion it used very basic methods. LulzRaft also apparently hacked into the website of

on the same day. They inserted a notice promising free gas to users who used the coupon code "hash-browns", claiming that it was a gesture of goodwill intended to placate conservatives who were offended by their previous attacks. Though some commentators have speculated that the group is motivated by a dislike of the Conservative party, LulzRaft has stated that they are a non-partisan group with a general dislike of politicians. It is unknown whether the group is linked with LulzSec, although some media reports have included speculation that LulzRaft's attacks were inspired due to the copycat effect.

References

External links

* {{Hacking in the 2010s Cyberattacks Hacker groups

See also

References

External links