CloudFlare named "tech pioneer" after protecting LulzSec website
Who knew that keeping the LulzSec website operational would lead to a technology award? The World Economic Forum (WEF), which puts on the annual Davos, Switzerland confab of the world's business elite, has just released its list of "Technology Pioneers 2012" (PDF)—and it named CloudFlare one of the world's 25 innovators worth watching, in part because LulzSec hackers used the company's services.
LulzSec is certainly on the minds of WEF staff, and is thus likely on the minds of businesses across the globe. The hacking group appears in the very first paragraph of the new Technology Pioneers report for its infiltration of Sony servers and the later takedown of the PlayStation Network. "LulzSec, a group estimated to be six youthful hackers, cracked into Sony servers and stole passwords and confidential information concerning a million customers," said the report. "Clean-up and insurance costs from the debacle were estimated at more than US$ 170 million." (WEF also helpfully explains that the group's name is derived from "Laughing out loud at security.")
