Army of hackers target MasterCard and PayPal in revenge for them pulling the plug on WikiLeaks
Computer hackers sent one of the world?s biggest credit card companies into meltdown yesterday in revenge for cutting off payments to the WikiLeaks website.
The attack was launched by a shadowy international group called ?Anonymous? which said MasterCard had been targeted for freezing the account of the whistleblowing site.
The devastating blow to MasterCard, as well as the online payment network PayPal and a Swiss bank, came on one of the busiest online shopping days of the year.
Attack: MasterCard's website was brought down by cyber hackers
Paypal admiited the cyber onslaught slowed down payments
The stoppage, which lasted around six hours, is thought to have affected hundreds of thousands of shoppers worldwide and highlights how vulnerable the world?s computer systems are to attack.
It is thought just a few dozen ?hacktivists? launched the electronic onslaught, which was taken up by other supporters.
The ?distributed denial of service? (DDoS) attack involved around 2,000 computers bombarding the website?s host computers with requests for information, causing them to crash.
WikiLeaks has been publishing classified U.S. diplomatic cables, to the fury of Washington authorities. They have lobbied to cut off all support for the website which they are desperate to shut down.
Yesterday a spokesman for Anonymous, calling himself ?Coldblood?, a 22-year-old based in London, said: ?Websites that are bowing down to government pressure have become targets.
Protest outside Westminster Magistrates' Court as Julian Assange was denied bail in his fight against extradition to Sweden yesterday
'As an organisation we have always taken a strong stance on censorship and freedom of expression on the internet and come out against those who seek to destroy it by any means.
?We feel that WikiLeaks has become more than just about leaking of documents, it has become a war ground, the people versus the government.
?The idea is not to wipe them off but to give the companies a wake-up call.?
U.S. Army private Bradley Manning allegedly passed the State Department cables to WikiLeaks
In a further communique online, Anonymous warned: ?We will fire at anything or anyone that tries to censor WikiLeaks, including multibillion-dollar companies such as PayPal.?
The spokesman added that the group?s intention ?was to be a force for chaotic good?.
Anonymous has previously been linked to attacks on websites belonging to the Church of Scientology and the music industry.
Yesterday?s onslaught was dubbed ?Operation Payback?. MasterCard first reported an attack which partially shut down its corporate website Mastercard.com at around 9.30am yesterday.
Initially it said no customers had been affected. But by the evening the attacks had escalated and it is thought hundreds of thousands of online transactions were stopped.
The problem came about when shoppers tried to pay for their purchases and were redirected to a website run by MasterCard called Securecode.
This site was not authorising payments so the transactions could not be completed.
MasterCard declined to confirm that customers had been affected. But in a statement made to a respected website it reportedly said it suffered ?a service disruption to the MasterCard Directory Server? and added that ?customers may still be experiencing intermittent connectivity issues?.
Last night MasterCard said in a statement from its HQ in New York that its systems had not been compromised by ?a concentrated effort to flood our corporate web site with traffic and slow access?.
It said: ?We are working to restore normal service levels. There is no impact on our cardholders? ability to use their cards for secure transactions globally.?
A PayPal executive admitted the firm stopped processing WikileLeaks' payments after being pressured by the US State Department.
Speaking at a conference in Paris, Osama Bedier said: 'State Dept told us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward.'
According to the website TechCrunch, the admission was greeted by a chorus of boos from the audience.
Bedier, a PayPal vice president, added: 'We first comply with regulations around the world making sure that we protect our brand.'
He claimed the State Department branded WikiLeaks illegal on November 27.
A spokesman for PayPal said: ?We can confirm that there was an attempted DDoS attack on paypal.com. The attack slowed some payments down for a short while but we remained fully operational throughout.?
WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, 39, has been remanded in custody over claims that he sexually assaulted two Swedish women.
The websites of the Swedish Prosecutor and the lawyer representing the women were attacked yesterday.
Other websites targeted included those of U.S. senator Joe Lieberman, an outspoken critic of WikiLeaks, and Sarah Palin, who said Assange should be hunted like a terrorist.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
WikiLeaks: Mastercard payments disrupted after hackers launch 'cyberwar' on donations ban | Mail Online
- Card users unable to make payments
- Revenge attack follows similar assault on Swiss Bank
- Hackers promise to target Twitter over claims WikiLeaks comments are being censored
- PayPal executive admits U.S. State Department pressured site to stop WikiLeaks payments
Computer hackers sent one of the world?s biggest credit card companies into meltdown yesterday in revenge for cutting off payments to the WikiLeaks website.
The attack was launched by a shadowy international group called ?Anonymous? which said MasterCard had been targeted for freezing the account of the whistleblowing site.
The devastating blow to MasterCard, as well as the online payment network PayPal and a Swiss bank, came on one of the busiest online shopping days of the year.
Attack: MasterCard's website was brought down by cyber hackers Paypal admiited the cyber onslaught slowed down paymentsThe stoppage, which lasted around six hours, is thought to have affected hundreds of thousands of shoppers worldwide and highlights how vulnerable the world?s computer systems are to attack.
It is thought just a few dozen ?hacktivists? launched the electronic onslaught, which was taken up by other supporters.
The ?distributed denial of service? (DDoS) attack involved around 2,000 computers bombarding the website?s host computers with requests for information, causing them to crash.
WikiLeaks has been publishing classified U.S. diplomatic cables, to the fury of Washington authorities. They have lobbied to cut off all support for the website which they are desperate to shut down.
Yesterday a spokesman for Anonymous, calling himself ?Coldblood?, a 22-year-old based in London, said: ?Websites that are bowing down to government pressure have become targets.
Protest outside Westminster Magistrates' Court as Julian Assange was denied bail in his fight against extradition to Sweden yesterday'As an organisation we have always taken a strong stance on censorship and freedom of expression on the internet and come out against those who seek to destroy it by any means.
?We feel that WikiLeaks has become more than just about leaking of documents, it has become a war ground, the people versus the government.
?The idea is not to wipe them off but to give the companies a wake-up call.?
U.S. Army private Bradley Manning allegedly passed the State Department cables to WikiLeaksIn a further communique online, Anonymous warned: ?We will fire at anything or anyone that tries to censor WikiLeaks, including multibillion-dollar companies such as PayPal.?
The spokesman added that the group?s intention ?was to be a force for chaotic good?.
Anonymous has previously been linked to attacks on websites belonging to the Church of Scientology and the music industry.
Yesterday?s onslaught was dubbed ?Operation Payback?. MasterCard first reported an attack which partially shut down its corporate website Mastercard.com at around 9.30am yesterday.
Initially it said no customers had been affected. But by the evening the attacks had escalated and it is thought hundreds of thousands of online transactions were stopped.
The problem came about when shoppers tried to pay for their purchases and were redirected to a website run by MasterCard called Securecode.
This site was not authorising payments so the transactions could not be completed.
MasterCard declined to confirm that customers had been affected. But in a statement made to a respected website it reportedly said it suffered ?a service disruption to the MasterCard Directory Server? and added that ?customers may still be experiencing intermittent connectivity issues?.
Last night MasterCard said in a statement from its HQ in New York that its systems had not been compromised by ?a concentrated effort to flood our corporate web site with traffic and slow access?.
It said: ?We are working to restore normal service levels. There is no impact on our cardholders? ability to use their cards for secure transactions globally.?
A PayPal executive admitted the firm stopped processing WikileLeaks' payments after being pressured by the US State Department.
Speaking at a conference in Paris, Osama Bedier said: 'State Dept told us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward.'
According to the website TechCrunch, the admission was greeted by a chorus of boos from the audience.
Bedier, a PayPal vice president, added: 'We first comply with regulations around the world making sure that we protect our brand.'
He claimed the State Department branded WikiLeaks illegal on November 27.
A spokesman for PayPal said: ?We can confirm that there was an attempted DDoS attack on paypal.com. The attack slowed some payments down for a short while but we remained fully operational throughout.?
WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, 39, has been remanded in custody over claims that he sexually assaulted two Swedish women.
The websites of the Swedish Prosecutor and the lawyer representing the women were attacked yesterday.
Other websites targeted included those of U.S. senator Joe Lieberman, an outspoken critic of WikiLeaks, and Sarah Palin, who said Assange should be hunted like a terrorist.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
WikiLeaks: Mastercard payments disrupted after hackers launch 'cyberwar' on donations ban | Mail Online
screw you nag3 
Comment