After LulzSec released the account information of up to 62,000 innocent users, its 4Chan-born sibling Anonymous reportedly targeted it, leading to a declaration of war between the two hacking collectives.

Anonymous' targeting of the group has since been reported as a response to LulzSec's machine-gun approach to hacking.

Anonymous members have reportedly taken exception to LulzSec's habit of targeting anyone and anything in its cyber attacks regardless of whether the company or person has done anything wrong.

LulzSec's recent attacks on "soft targets" such as the gaming websites Minecraft and Eve Online and subsequent release of 62,000 innocent internet users email and social networking account information has widely been speculated as the straw-that-broke-the-camels-back.

The two collective's began trading blows over 4chan.org's message board. The first message from LulzSec reading, "Just saw a thread on /b/ where they're trying to hunt us: you /b/tards realize that we are everything you've ever tried to be?"

To which Anonymous replied, "We are the concentrated success of 2005 /b/, being 'hunted' by the 2011 furry horde. Challenge accepted, losers".

Both groups were apparently born from the older hacker collective 4Chan. The larger group seemed to encompass both LulzSec and Anonymous' separate characters, picking its targets with the same hacktivist leanings as Anonymous, but executing them with the same comic showmanship of LulzSec.

Whether the two collectives exchange of words will lead into a full on cyber war is questionable. It is debatable whether, those that wrote the messages actually speak for their respective groups as a whole.

Irrespective of this, the messages do indicate that the two hacker collectives are nowhere near as united as certain sources originally reported.

UPDATE: The two collectives have since revealed that they are not at war and are actually working together.