The websites of Mastercard, Visa and a Swiss bank were unreachable for most of Wednesday after hackers organised attacks in revenge for the organisations' decision to choke off funding mechanisms for WikiLeaks.
Organisers of the group "Anonymous" were joined by thousands of voluntary hackers in what observers called "Operation Payback" directed against any organisations which withdrew their support for controversial whistle blowing website WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks confirmed it had nothing to do with the hacking attacks.
Ever since WikiLeaks started to release sensitive cables from U.S. diplomats, the website and its founder Julian Assange have come under fierce criticism also from the U.S. government. However, a wave of support under the "freedom of press" banner is grasping the internet following the arrest of Mr. Assange on rape charges earlier this week. Assange strongly denies the charges.
Coinciding with the busiest time of the year for online payments, the Visa and Mastercard payment services were down for most of Wednesday as a result of the cyber attacks. Operation Payback was initiated by hacking group "Anonymous" via a Twitter message, which read: "Operation Payback. TARGET: WWW.VISA.COM::FIRE FIRE FIRE!!! WEAPONS".
Icelandic firm Data Cell accused Visa of bowing to political pressure and said it would sue the credit card giant for blocking payments to WikiLeaks.
Meanwhile, the support of group "Anonymous" and Operation Payment is growing and further attacks on any organisation "that has an anti-WikiLeaks agenda" are likely.
This is quite bad. Even if they got hacked, they must continue to process funds to and from the wikileaks. I thought banking mechanisms are neutral?
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