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LulzSec tweets as News’ DNS servers go down

DNS controls access to websites and e-mail
The LulzSec tweet as News International's DNS servers go down stopping access to the company's websites and e-mail

The LulzSec tweet as News International's DNS servers go down stopping access to the company's websites and e-mail

Just hours after claiming responsibility for hacking News International’s The Sun website and posting a fake story about Rupert Murdoch’s death, hacker group Lulz Security has tweeted that News International’s DNS servers are down denying access to some 1024 web addresses.

Lulz Security posted to its twitter account (@LulzSec) today: “News International's DNS servers (link web addresses to servers) and all 1,024 web addresses are down.”

While not specifically claiming responsibility for the attack, the reborn LulzSec has hit the headlines again since News International’s infamous phone hacking scandal which resulted in the closure of the News of the World.

DNS, or Domain Name System, is at the heart of every transaction on the Web as it directs domain names to computer addresses. Without DNS, Web browsing and e-mail won’t work.

At the time of writing News International’s UK websites, including newsinternaitonal.co.uk and thesun.co.uk were inaccessible.

A DNS security consultant, who requested anonymity, said News International only has two DNS servers “and they are both in-house”.

“Although the .co.uk servers are also suffering,” he said at the time of the attack.

“They should be sending the A and AAAA addresses but are not. Both servers are in the same /24 [network] which is a no-no, typically.”

News International’s system and network administrators now have the unenviable task of restoring the DNS servers back to their working state.

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