Computer hackers broke into the website ofRupert Murdoch's best-selling British tabloid and altered the front page to show a fake report about the media mogul's death.
The hackers redirected visitors to the twitter feed of hacker group Lulz Security, which came to prominence after several cyber assaults on the websites of Sony Corp, the CIA, and News Corp's Fox TV.
"We have owned Sun/News of the World," LulzSec posted on Twitter late on Monday, when Tuesday's front page story on The Sun's website read "Media moguls body discovered."
News International, the British subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp, is at the center of a phone hacking scandal rocking his business empire, British politicians and senior police.
Earlier on Monday, LulzSec member Sabu tweeted the hackers were "sitting on (Sun/News of the World) emails" and would release a statement on Tuesday.
Sabu also begun to tweet what it said were the contact details and logins of News International employees including ex-chief executive Rebekah Brooks. It was not possible to verify if the details were genuine.
News International said the company was "aware of what was happening and that the company's technical teams were working on the it."
In late June, the hacker group said it was disbanding with one last data dump, which included internal AOL INC and AT&T documents.