After a brief lull, hacker groups have raised their heads again, hitting two high profile targets – the British newspaper, The Sun, and Lady Gaga’s UK website.

Hacker group Anonymous has also revealed that it would start a social networking site.

In what is believed to be the first hack attack on a major British newspaper, hacker group Lulz Security (LulzSec), hacked and redirected readers of The Sun to a fake page on the New Times site.

The page claimed that media businessman and owner of The Sun Rupert Murdoch had been found dead in his garden after he had "ingested a large quantity of palladium."

The Sun’s website address then re-directed readers to LulzSec’s Twitter page, where it claimed responsibility for the breach.

A LulzSec Twitter message read, "We have owned Sun/News of the World."

The group also dared authorities to take action against the members of the hacker group.

LulzSec challenged, "Arrest us. We dare you. We are the unstoppable hacking generation…."

It is thought that the attack is a mark of protest against corporate wrongdoing.

A message by the hacker group read, "This is only the beginning. Fuck you Murdoch. You are next."

News International took down the page and has shut down other pages as a precautionary measure.

LulzSec — infamous for its attacks on sonypictures.com, Nintendo and FBI associate websites — had recently claimed that it would be disbanding to avoid a crackdown on members and heightened scrutiny by authorities.

Meanwhile, US hacking group Swagsec has claimed responsibility for the hack attack on pop singer Lady Gaga’s UK website, stealing thousands of email addresses and names of fans.

The hack reportedly took place on 27 June. The pro-gayrights hackers, who specialise in breaching music company websites, claimed that Lady Gaga was "homophobic", which the pop singer has dismissed, reported the Inquirer.

Lady Gaga’s music label Universal Music has said that no financial details or passwords were compromised in the attack.

Separately, online hacktivist group Anonymous has said that it would start a new social networking service to take on Google’s Google+.

The group said that it resorted to starting this kind of a project after being banned by Google and learning that other hackers are being denied access in several social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The group wrote on their website, "As some of you know we got banned from Google+ due to some of our content."

"What we didn’t know at the time is that we were just one of a handful of Anonymous accounts that was [sic] silenced."

"We’ve all heard the stories of activists being banned from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and governments blocking their people from these sites as well through organised black outs…"

The message continued, "This is one social network that will not tolerate being shut down, censored, or oppressed – even in the face of blackout. We the people have had enough…enough of governments and corporations saying what’s best for us – what’s safe for our minds.

"The sheep era is over. The interwebz are no longer your prison."