Cyber-activist group launches DDoS attacks on PayPal for ceasing to process donations to WikiLeaks
The cyber-group responsible for launching a series of attacks against copyright societies worldwide in October, is now performing further attacks in defense of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to PandaLabs. The group has circulated a statement indicating that it has no affiliation with WikiLeaks or its founder, but shows its full support of Assange, as “we fight for the same reason: Transparency and anti-censorship“.
PandaLabs says it has detected three attacks, the first two hitting PayPal and its blog for suspending donations to WikiLeaks, and have resulted in over 8 hours of total downtime. The third attack was directed at the PostFinance.ch bank for freezing Assange’s account and has reportedly resulted in more than 11 hours of downtime.
Last Monday, the Anonymous group’s own website suffered a series of DDoS attacks that rendered it inactive for some hours. Anonymous is planning to continue with its campaign in favor of Julian Assange by attacking any institution that tries to silence or discourage WikiLeaks. The group has already threatened Twitter for allegedly suppressing WikiLeaks discussions.
The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has was arrested earlier today by London police, but not in connection with WikiLeaks — he was arrested on behalf of Swedish authorities on allegation of rape. The Swiss Government has shut down his Swiss Bank account after accusing him of lying. Additionally, PayPal and Mastercard have reportedly frozen Wikileak’s accounts and challenging the organizations fund raising efforts.
WikiLeaks’ own web site has been targeted with DDoS attacks recently as well surrounding the recent release of confidential State Department Documents.