The website of British tabloid The Sun has been hacked by internet pranksters.
The homepage of the News International newspaper, www.thesun.co.uk, was this morning redirecting readers to a page announcing the false death of Rupert Murdoch.
The hoax story said the Australian-born media mogul had been found dead in his garden after an overdose of palladium, a poisonous chemical.
Hacking group LulzSec used its Twitter account to claim responsibility for the attack.
"Can you spell success, gentlemen?" the group tweeted.
The hoax story reported an "officer" as saying: "We found the chemicals sitting beside a kitchen table, recently cooked. From what we can gather, Murdoch melted and consumed large quantities of it before exiting into his garden".
The bogus story is also peppered with hactivist references.
It claimed the 80-year-old Murdoch ingested palladium before "stumbling into his famous topiary garden" — "Topiary" is the pseudonym for a member of LulzSec who reportedly runs the group's Twitter account.
The story also contains the LulzSec mascot — a top hat and monocle-clad stick figure.
"Officers on the scene report a broken glass, a box of vintage wine, and what seems to be a family album strewn across the floor, containing images from days gone by; some containing handpainted portraits of Murdoch in his early days, donning a top hat and monocle," it read.
LulzSec has previously claimed responsibility for hacking the websites of the CIA, Sony Pictures, and TV network PBS. But the six-member group announced late last month it was disbanding.
The re-direct to the false Murdoch death story was first noticed by ninemsn at 7.30am AEST.
At around 8.15am AEST the homepage began re-directing readers to LulzSec's Twitter page.
Shortly after 9am AEST The Sun homepage address, one of the best-rating news sites in Britain, stopped linking to the Twitter page and simply recorded an error message.
The hactivist group claimed the hoax story is "simply phase 1 - expect the lulz to flow in coming days".
Source: 9News
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