The Sun readers’ personal information leaked

News International has sent out emails to thousands of its online readers warning them that their personal information has been published by a hacker that goes by the handle of “Batteye”.

The users affected by this leak are those who entered various competitions and polls on the website, and the stolen data contains names, addresses, phone numbers, emails and birth dates – but, luckily, no financial information.

The email says that the data in question was collected during the LulzSec July 19 attack that witnessed the hacking of News International servers and hijacking of The Sun’s main page, but Batteye’s statement contradicts these claims.

He says that he has nothing to do with LulzSec or Anonymous. Indeed, his motivation for the hack and disclosure of the data seems to be to punish “people who don’t learn from mistakes” and to show that users’ trust that the organization will protect the information shared with them is misplaced.

According to the Guardian, News International and the police are working on retrieving the stolen files.