In support of Wikileaks:
Hackers wage cyber attacks
SWITZERLAND: Hackers on Wednesday attacked the websites of credit
card giants Mastercard and Visa in revenge for their decisions to cut
off funding to whistleblower website Wikileaks.
The group “Anonymous” claimed credit for bringing down the websites
of the two firms after they suspended payments to Wikileaks, and for
attacking the site of a Swiss bank that closed an account of site
founder Julian Assange.
“Hackers Take Down Visa.com in the Name of Wikileaks. Wow. This is
getting crazy,” said a message from the group on microblogging site
Twitter, as the attacks started to take on the appearance of a cyber
war.
The fallout from the US State Department cables released by Wikileaks,
which said it had nothing to do with the hacking, meanwhile continued
Wednesday with news organizations in the United States and Europe
releasing more revelations.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper published cables that showed a top Shell
executive boasting the oil giant had inserted staff into all levels of
the Nigerian government and knew “everything that was being done in
those ministries.”
Cables posted by the New York Times, meanwhile, recounted how
Washington pressured Germany to not issue arrest warrants against CIA
officers involved in the 2003 kidnapping of a German citizen mistakenly
thought to be involved with Islamic militants.
As Assange spent his first full day in a London prison after he was
refused bail on Tuesday, it emerged that one of Britain’s
highest-profile lawyers will fight moves to extradite him to Sweden to
face rape accusations.
WikiLeaks has enraged governments around the world by releasing a
wave of US diplomatic cables, detailing everything from China’s view of
North Korea to unflattering descriptions of world leaders.
After Wikileaks appealed for donations to be able to continue its
activities, Mastercard and Visa said they were suspending payments to
the site, sparking attacks on their websites.
The Swiss Post Office banking service, PostFinance, also became a
target on Wednesday after earlier in the week revealing that it had
closed an account set up by Assange, saying he had given false
information. Cyber attacks by “Anonymous” knocked all three sites
offline on Wednesday.
Even US conservative icon Sarah Palin was a target of the group
following her call to pursue Assange “with the same urgency we pursue
Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.”
Mastercard claimed the attack had limited effect on its services,
saying in a statement to the BBC: “While we have seen limited
interruption in some web-based services, cardholders can continue to use
their cards for secure transactions globally.”
Zurich, Thursday, AFP |