The online pranksters at Lulz Security say they've taken down two government Web sites in Brazil as they continue with their global "Anti-Security" campaign. Both brazil.gov.br and presidencia.gov.br are unresponsive this morning, and the hactivist group has claimed responsibility on its Twitter feed. The group, which has attacked Web sites of PBS, Sony, the U.S. Senate, the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.K.'s Serious Organized Crima Agency, and myriad online gaming services, announced last week that it had a more serious agenda than simply the "lulz," or online laughs, that it had earlier claimed to be working for. It said it was out to demonstrate security flaws in government and corporate sites, and on Monday, it launched AntiSec, calling on other hackers to join in exposing said flaws.

But while the group continues its fairly serious-minded security work, it seems to be overly concerned about how it's being portrayed in the U.K. press. An article in The Sun about the reported U.K. arrest of a LulzSec member yesterday really got under the skin of whoever runs the group's twitter feed. "How many times can you use "geek" and "nerd" in one article?" it fumed. "If you don't kick, hit or throw some kind of sports-related object at least thirty-five times a week, you are a filthy recluse to The Sun." Given the group's penchant for retro cultural touchstones (it uses the Loveboat theme song and makes constant Twitter references to the 1995 film Hackers), we wouldn't be surprised to see a glowing profile of Urkel or an essay on Revenge of the Nerds pop up on The Sun's site before too long. For all LulzSec's laudable aims, nerd rage is a strong motivator.

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Adam Martin