US government warns of future Anonymous-LulzSec attacks

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has warned organisations to expect more Anonymous and LulzSec attacks in the future, claiming that the groups may elevate their operations with more advanced capabilities.

In another sign of the growing seriousness with which governments are taking the hacktivist groups, the department's National Cyber Security and Communications Integration Center released a bulletin comprising a comprehensive background to the groups, their tactics and techniques and future plans.

Several times in the report the DHS claims that LulzSec and Anonymous use "rudimentary exploits" and lack "advanced capabilities".

"Future attacks are likely to continue but will likely remain limited in scope due to a lack of advanced capabilities," it states.

"These attacks are also likely to target the federal government and critical infrastructure sectors, particularly in response to publicised events relating to civil liberties, cyber security, or allegations of censorship (online or otherwise)."

However, the bulletin does warn that this situation may change in the future.

"This does not take into account the possibility of a higher-level actor providing LulzSec or Anonymous with more advanced capabilities," it continues.

"Therefore, it may be advisable to adjust the monitoring of internal and external resources for indications of a pending or ongoing attack on cyber or telecommunications networks."

The DHS recommended public and private sector organisations to ensure they have backup and recovery plans in place, and that if they suffer an attack to "collect and centrally manage detailed aspects" of it in order to help the work of law enforcers.

Anonymous alerted its followers to the bulletin via a Twitter post saying: "Now they know what Lulz are.".

The bulletin comes as the groups' activities continue to cause embarrassment for public and private bodies across the globe.

Last week the hackers posted 400MB of documents they claimed to have stolen from US government cyber security contractor ManTech International, including information on the FBI and Nato.

On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police took the unusual step of posting a statement to Tweetdeck designed to remind any supporters of the hactivist collectives that their activities could carry long jail sentences.