WikiLeaks supporters strike back
Source: Agencies |
December 9, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WIKILEAKS supporters struck back yesterday at perceived enemies of the site and its jailed founder Julian Assange, launching hack attacks against MasterCard, Swedish prosecutors, a Swedish defense lawyer and a Swiss group that froze Assange's bank account.
Internet hacktivists operating under the label "Operation Payback" claimed responsibility for causing technological problems at MasterCard, which pulled the plug on its relationship with WikiLeaks on Tuesday.
MasterCard said it was "experiencing heavy traffic," but spokesman James Issokson said the company would not confirm whether WikiLeaks was involved. Issokson said MasterCard was trying to restore service yesterday but was not sure how long that would take. The website's technical problems have no impact on consumers using credit cards for secure transactions, he added.
MasterCard is the latest in a string of Internet companies - including Visa, Amazon.com, PayPal Inc and EveryDNS - to cut ties to WikiLeaks in recent days amid intense United States government pressure.
The online attacks are part of a wave of support for WikiLeaks that is sweeping the Internet. Twitter was choked with messages of solidarity yesterday for the group, while the site's Facebook page hit 1 million fans.
Offline, the organization is under pressure on many fronts. Assange, who turned himself in to London police on Tuesday, is now in a British prison fighting extradition to Sweden over a sex crimes case. Moves by Swiss Postfinance, MasterCard, PayPal and others, meanwhile, have impaired the group's ability to raise money.
The pro-WikiLeaks vengeance campaign appeared to be taking the form of denial of service attacks in which computers across the Internet are harnessed - sometimes surreptitiously - to jam target sites with mountains of requests for data, knocking them out of commission.
PayPal's vice president of platform, Osama Bedier, said the company froze WikiLeaks' account after receiving a letter from the US State Department "saying that the WikiLeaks activities were deemed illegal in the US."
"It's honestly just pretty straightforward from our perspective," he said, speaking at a web conference in Paris.
Neither WikiLeaks nor Assange has been charged with any offense in the US, but the government is investigating whether Assange can be prosecuted for espionage or other offenses.
Per Hellqvist, a security specialist with the firm Symantec, said a loose network of web activists called Anonymous appeared to be behind many of the attacks. The group, which has previously focused on the Church of Scientology, has promised to come to Assange's aid by knocking offline websites seen as hostile to WikiLeaks.
"While we don't have much of an affiliation with WikiLeaks, we fight for the same reasons," the group said in a statement on its website. "We want transparency and we counter censorship. This is why we intend to utilize our resources to raise awareness, attack those against and?support those who are helping to lead our world to freedom and democracy."
The website for lawyer Claes Borgstrom, who represents the two women at the center of Assange's sex crimes case, was offline yesterday.
The Swiss postal system's financial arm, Postfinance, which shut down Assange's new bank account, was also having trouble. Spokesman Alex Josty said the website buckled under a barrage of traffic Tuesday but the attack seems to have eased off.
"Yesterday it was very difficult, then things improved overnight," he said.
Internet hacktivists operating under the label "Operation Payback" claimed responsibility for causing technological problems at MasterCard, which pulled the plug on its relationship with WikiLeaks on Tuesday.
MasterCard said it was "experiencing heavy traffic," but spokesman James Issokson said the company would not confirm whether WikiLeaks was involved. Issokson said MasterCard was trying to restore service yesterday but was not sure how long that would take. The website's technical problems have no impact on consumers using credit cards for secure transactions, he added.
MasterCard is the latest in a string of Internet companies - including Visa, Amazon.com, PayPal Inc and EveryDNS - to cut ties to WikiLeaks in recent days amid intense United States government pressure.
The online attacks are part of a wave of support for WikiLeaks that is sweeping the Internet. Twitter was choked with messages of solidarity yesterday for the group, while the site's Facebook page hit 1 million fans.
Offline, the organization is under pressure on many fronts. Assange, who turned himself in to London police on Tuesday, is now in a British prison fighting extradition to Sweden over a sex crimes case. Moves by Swiss Postfinance, MasterCard, PayPal and others, meanwhile, have impaired the group's ability to raise money.
The pro-WikiLeaks vengeance campaign appeared to be taking the form of denial of service attacks in which computers across the Internet are harnessed - sometimes surreptitiously - to jam target sites with mountains of requests for data, knocking them out of commission.
PayPal's vice president of platform, Osama Bedier, said the company froze WikiLeaks' account after receiving a letter from the US State Department "saying that the WikiLeaks activities were deemed illegal in the US."
"It's honestly just pretty straightforward from our perspective," he said, speaking at a web conference in Paris.
Neither WikiLeaks nor Assange has been charged with any offense in the US, but the government is investigating whether Assange can be prosecuted for espionage or other offenses.
Per Hellqvist, a security specialist with the firm Symantec, said a loose network of web activists called Anonymous appeared to be behind many of the attacks. The group, which has previously focused on the Church of Scientology, has promised to come to Assange's aid by knocking offline websites seen as hostile to WikiLeaks.
"While we don't have much of an affiliation with WikiLeaks, we fight for the same reasons," the group said in a statement on its website. "We want transparency and we counter censorship. This is why we intend to utilize our resources to raise awareness, attack those against and?support those who are helping to lead our world to freedom and democracy."
The website for lawyer Claes Borgstrom, who represents the two women at the center of Assange's sex crimes case, was offline yesterday.
The Swiss postal system's financial arm, Postfinance, which shut down Assange's new bank account, was also having trouble. Spokesman Alex Josty said the website buckled under a barrage of traffic Tuesday but the attack seems to have eased off.
"Yesterday it was very difficult, then things improved overnight," he said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
