NullCrew cites various reasons for its hacks. Cambridge University and data.gov.uk (a 623MB dump) were both done in the name of OpFreeAssange. The Cambodia Army site and the Cambodian airline PMT Air were hacked in the name of OpTPB (following the recent arrest of one of the original Pirate Bay founders in Cambodia). Other attacks seem to be against big business and banks. Sony was hacked because “we are dearly dissapointed in your security.”
NullCrew claims to have taken control of eight Sony servers in its data dump from just one of them. This particular leak is small and includes just over 400 email addresses and encrypted passwords. If NullCrew's claims are correct, we can expect further dumps in the near future.
There will undoubtedly be comparisons between NullCrew and LulzSec, although the former isn’t so far taking the route of taunting the FBI. Nevertheless it seems to be motivated by both Anonymous-style political causes and old-fashioned lulz (because it can). It doesn’t seem to be closely connected to the Anonymous collective despite supporting Anonymous-led operations. “They work with us, but have their own agenda,” Anonymous told Infosecurity.
Meanwhile, as this report is being written, both MI5 and MI6 have come under attack from Anonymous (not NullCrew). MI6 and MI5 are both unavailable at the time of writing. Anonymous told Infosecurity that the attacks are in the name of OpFreeAsssange, the protest against the treatment of Julian Assange by the UK, Sweden and allegedly the US.