With news of 35 alleged Anonymous members currently being detained by the authorities, many analysts have come to question just how long it will be until LulzSec finds itself in law enforcement agencies firing lines following its high-profile cyber attack on the U.S. Senate.

LulzSec's activities

The group LulzSec has been around for some time, though it only really caught the general public's attention last month when it began its ongoing war with tech giant Sony.

Since then the group went on to target numerous other games companies, including Nintendo and Bethesda Softworks.

It was only this week that the group returned to its previous habits of targeting government owned websites. First hacking the U.K.'s National Health Service and then, as reported earlier today, the U.S. Senate.

LulzSec first reported its attack on the U.S. Senate via a tweet on its Twitter page. As is its habit, the group went on to post the data it stole as a statement on its website.

Since the cyber security breach went public, officials at the U.S. Senate have clarified that the group only managed to break into the public portion of the Senate's website. Senate representatives promised that LulzSec did not not manage to breach the firewall protecting the more sensitive portion of the network.

LulzSec's post indicated a possible motivation for its attack as being the U.S. government's recent policy of treating all cyber attacks in the same manner as a real-world attack:

"We don't like the US government very much. Their boats are weak, their lulz are low, and their sites aren't very secure. In an attempt to help them fix their issues, we've decided to donate additional lulz in the form of owning them some more!

"This is a small, just-for-kicks release of some internal data from Senate.gov - is this an act of war, gentlemen? Problem?"

Anonymous arrests

Since its widely speculated involvement in the initial cyber attack on Sony's PlayStation Network, the hacking collective Anonymous has moved on to target several government owned websites.

The first reports of believed members detention came from Spain, where Spanish authorities reported catching three suspected members.

Since then an impressive 32 further potential members were reported as being detained by Turkish authorities -- Turkish representatives are yet to release information about how many of the individuals detained are actual Anonymous members.

The 32 believed members were caught after Turkish prosecutors and police launched raids in 12 of the country's provinces this Monday.

Local news sources have since reported the raids as a response to the "distributed denial of service" attacks Anonymous has mounted against Turkish telecoms regulators.

DDoS assaults are a form of cyber attack that use large numbers of computers to overload a website with requests. They are designed to overload the computer and its network causing them to crash.

Anonymous has on numerous occasions reported its attacks as being motivated by political concerns. In regard to Turkey, the group cited its worries about the Turkish government's increased monitoring of its citizens internet use.

The group has since cited specific incidents where the Turkish Government has gone so far as to outright block certain websites:

"Over the last few years, we have seen how the Turkish government has tightened its grip on the internet.

"Accessing and participating in the free flow of information is a basic human right. Anonymous will not stand by while the Turkish government violates this right."

The attacks on Turkey's regulators are not the first Anonymous have done for political reasons.

The group has a history of politically motivated attacks having previously targeted the websites of Iran and pre-revolution Tunisia and Egypt.

LulzSec's future

Speculation as to whether LulzSec may have gone one step too far following its cyber attack on the U.S. Senate has since grown rife.

The group consistently tried to portray itself as a motley crew of "ninja pirates". The group even celebrates its exploits not just by flaunting them on its website and Twitter page, but also apparently in song, releasing its own music video on YouTube.

While some have seen the group's activities as entertaining, or even praise worthy when targeting a private company, the general reaction to its attack on the U.S. Senate has on the whole been less favourable.

While the FBI -- as well as several other law enforcement agencies -- were investigating LulzSec's reported cyber attacks, it is likely that as a result of the group's return to targeting government agency's and department's websites, these investigations may -- like the growing hunt for Anonymous members -- suddenly take on a whole new level of severity.

UPDATE: Details regarding some of the individuals detained have since been released.

UPDATE: LulzSec has since claimed responsibility for a new cyber attack against the U.S. CIA's website.

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