LulzSec to Set Sail Again on April Fool's Day?

A video entitled LulzSec Returns has been posted on YouTube claiming that the hacktivist group LulzSec will return on April Fool's Day.

LulzSec, an offshoot of the Anonymous group, publicly declared it was disbanding around nine months ago follwoing almost 50 days of constant attacks. The video, which features images of the group's mascot with the LulzSec theme tune in the background, mentions the recent arrests of six of the group's most prominent members, which all began when the most prominent of them, known as Sabu, turned informant on his former colleagues.

The voice over on the video says: "Much to the dismay of corrupt governments and corporations across the planet, it is ridiculous to believe that by arresting the six prime members of LulSec, that you have stopped us. You have not stopped us."

It goes on to say that from 1 April next, LulzSec will start to target governments, corporations and agencies and "quite possibility the people watching this video. We are here for the lulz the attention the fame." It also says that dormant members are currently working on epic operations and pranks that will go down in history.

The group has been relatively quiet since it emerged that its erstwhile leader, Sabu, aka Hector Xavier Monsegur had been arrested by the FBI in June 2011 and had been working for the organisation since to help bring down the rest of the group.

Earlier this month, thanks to the information gleaned from Sabu, the FBI mounted a swoop on five suspected members of LulzSec in the UK, Ireland and the US.

LulzSec was behind some of the biggest attacks of 2011 including the US Senate, the cyber security firm Unveillance, Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.

The betrayal by Sabu of his fellow Anons has been seen by many, including F-Secure security expert Sean Sullivan, to have done permanent damage to Anonymous's credibility. "I think these LulzSec arrests and Sabu's actions have damaged the 'Anonymous brand'. At least an important part of it. Its soul has been tainted. And as the counterproductive nature of OpAntiSec becomes more apparent over time, critics will blame LulzSec/Sabu," said Sullivan told IBTimes UK at the time of the arrests.

While LulzSec did publicly disband some nine months ago, its members are still around and still in close contact with Anonymous. Indeed the attack on Panda Security in response to the arrests on 6 March was carried out in the name of AntiSec, which refers to collaborative efforts between LulzSec and Anonymous.

However, it is not clear if this video, by a member called FawkesSecurity , is representative of the LulzSec movement. The LulzSec Twitter account remains silent while its website is still down. It remains to be seen if we will see a return to operations by LulzSec or if this is just a very early April Fools Joke.