PayPal attacked after cutting off WikileaksPayPal has been the latest target of a DDOS attack after cutting off Wikileaks.
Since the whistle-blowing website started to release its series of leaked diplomatic cables, that site has been hit by distributed denial of service attacks (DDOS), and was forced to move to a new domain after being dropped by Every DNS as well as Amazon.
The attacks are going both ways, however, as PayPal's blog was taken offline after the online payment system shut down Wikileaks' account, blocking supporters from making donations.
The PayPal blog was down for more than eight hours, but has now returned, according to a report from security researcher Sean-Paul Correll at Panda Labs.
The attack appears to be from Anonymous, the hackers behind the Operation Payback attacks on anti file-sharing sites.
The Anonymous twitter feed claimed credit for the attack, while leaders of the group said it felt obliged to defend Wikileaks, according to a statement sent to Correll.
“While we don’t have much of an affiliation with Wikileaks, we fight for the same: we want transparency (in our case in copyright) and we counter censorship," the statement said. "The attempts to silence Wikileaks are long strides closer to a world where we can not say what we think and not express how we feel."
"Except for the usual DDoSing, word will be spread that whoever tries to silence or discourage Wikileaks, favors world domination rather than freedom and democracy,” the hacking group added.
PayPal said it shut down Wikileaks' account because it violated its acceptable use policy, which says the "payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity".
Read more: PayPal attacked after cutting off Wikileaks | Security | News | PC Pro
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/36 ... z17L1UItjaI wonder how much money was coming in for Wikileaks with all this attention
