LulzSec Work With Media to 'Responsibly' Release Sun Phone Hacking Emails

A tweet posted by hacker collective LulzSec indicates that the group is delaying the release of the Sun newspaper's email database to ensure that it does not hamper the police's ongoing investigation of News International.

Just after releasing two NATO documents, the group posted two tweets indicating that the delayed release of the Sun's emails was due to moral rather than practical reasons:

"We think, actually we may not release emails from The Sun, simply because it may compromise the court case. But.. http://t.co/VcE4QCL.

"We're currently working with certain media outlets who have been granted exclusive access to some of the News of the World emails we have."

The group targeted the News International owned Sun newspaper's website earlier this week. Initially the hack seemed to be just another "lulz seeking" cyber attack, with the group posting a fake story reporting News International owner Rupert Murdoch as dead, going on to re-direct all visitors to the site to LulzSec's Twitter page.

It was later revealed that the opening attacks were actually masking LulzSec and Anonymous' true target -- the Sun's email database.

After the attack the group promised to follow its usual pattern and release the data a day later. When the data didn't appear the group updated its time-frame for the release from Tuesday to a nebulous "soon".

The hacked emails were commonly thought to contain information regarding the current phone hacking scandal surrounding News International. The two tweets indicating LulzSec hesitance to openly release the data have been taken as giving credence to this theory.

The phone hacking scandal, while beginning years ago with Hugh Grant, only came to prominence earlier this month.

The scandal escalated after it was revealed that the now discontinued News of the World newspaper had hacked the phone of murdered school girl Milly Dowler.

Upon further investigation, it soon came to light that as well as Dowler numerous celebrity's and politicians -- including then U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown -- had also had their phones hacked.

The scandal has since reached global proportions spreading to the U.S. and seeing media tycoon Rupert Murdoch forced to answer questions at a British Parliamentary Hearing. Murdoch described the experience as "the most humbling day of my life."