US SENATE OFFICIALS have ordered a review of computer security operations after it emerged that its website had been compromised by hackers from the Lulz Security movement.

The attack on senate.gov apparently took place over the weekend, and was confirmed by a Senate spokeswoman yesterday who insisted that no individual account information could have been compromised.

The Lulz Security team (more commonly going by ‘LulzSec’) has posted some of the details it apparently gained access to on its website, though none of the information posted appeared to be in any way sensitive.

In a brief prologue to its posting, the team said it had posted the information “just for kicks”.

Politico quoted the Senate’s deputy sergeant-in-arms as saying the attack had borne little impact, with most of the data accessed being stored in front of a firewall and was therefore already intended for public consumption.

The intrusion was described as “inconvenient”.

The New York Times reports that LulzSec had previously claimed responsibility for attacks on websites belonging to the FBI, the American public service broadcaster PBS, and the website of Sony Pictures.

The group also claims to be behind the repeated attacks on the Sony PlayStation Network system.

The Guardian listed the IMF, Lockheed Martin, Google and Citigroup as other victims of the group’s attacks.

The team’s name is derived from the online acronym LOL (laugh out loud), modified to indicate a prank.