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Several major websites defined as enemies of Julian Assange and Wikileaks were targeted yesterday in a broad cyber-attack that brought several of them down for a period. The attacks were coordinated by a group called "Anonymous" which you may remember for releasing attack videos on the Church of Scientology.
Targets of the attacks, in which activists overwhelmed the sites with traffic, included the Web site of MasterCard, which had stopped processing donations for WikiLeaks; Amazon.com, which revoked the use of its computer servers; and PayPal, which stopped accepting donations for Mr. Assange's group. Visa.com was also affected by the attacks, as were the Web sites of the Swedish prosecutor's office and the lawyer representing the two women whose allegations of sexual misconduct are the basis of Sweden's extradition bid.
The Internet assaults underlined the growing reach of self-described “cyberanarchists,” antigovernment and anticorporate activists who have made an icon of Mr. Assange, a 39-year-old Australian.
The speed and range of the attacks also appeared to show the resilience of the backing among computer activists for Mr. Assange, who has appeared increasingly isolated in recent months amid the furor stoked by WikiLeaks's Web site posting of hundreds of thousands of secret Pentagon documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The hacker who initiated the attacks has promised more:
On Thursday, a man identifying himself as one of the activists from a group called Anonymous, who used the pseudonym Coldblood in an interview with BBC radio, said: “This campaign is not over from what I've seen. It's still going strong.” The speaker had an English accent and said he was a 22-year-old software engineer with no specific political loyalty.
Yesterday, Sarah Palin claims she was targeted in the cyber-attack:
Hackers associated with the group "Operation Payback" — an organization comprised of individuals who support Wikileaks founder Julian Assange — have reportedly tried to shut down the SarahPAC Web site and infiltrate Sarah and Todd Palin's personal credit card accounts.
"No wonder others are keeping silent about Assange's antics," Palin e-mailed Tapper. "This is what happens when you exercise the First Amendment and speak against his sick, un-American espionage efforts."
The group has promised to target Twitter for suspending its account.
In related news, more than 100 Wikileaks mirror sites have popped up in a week.
The Wikileaks saga has received the animation treatment from Next Media Animation in Taiwan.
Check it out, AFTER THE JUMP…
