As the number of DDoS attacks related to the censorship of WikiLeaks increases, the non-profit “new media organization” is trying to distance themselves from Anonymous, the rogue group of hackers who have claimed responsibility for disrupting the web operations of MasterCard, Paypal, and other corporations that have shunned WikiLeaks.
“WikiLeaks is aware that several government agencies and corporations, including the Swedish prosecutor, Mastercard, PayPal and State.gov (the website of the U.S. State Department) have come under cyber-attack in recent days, and have often been driven offline as a result,” a representative for the organization has said in a statement, according to Indonesian news source Kompas.com. “These denial of service attacks are believed to have originated from an Internet gathering known as Anonymous. This group is not affiliated with WikiLeaks. There has been no contact between any WikiLeaks staffer and anyone at Anonymous. WikiLeaks has not received any prior notice of any of Anonymous' actions,” the statement claims.
And WikiLeaks isn’t the only organization denouncing the “Operation Avenge Assange” Initiatives. Both Facebook and Twitter are facing criticism from free speech advocates after banning accounts and pages associated with the Anonymous DDoS attacks.
“Any Internet user who cares about free speech or has a controversial or unpopular message should be concerned about the fact that intermediaries might not let them express it,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Marcia Hofmann.
Law enforcement authorities are also getting involved in the fray. A 16-year-old male from the Netherlands was the first to be arrested in connection with the DDoS attacks yesterday. Authorities are currently holding the boy, who has reportedly confessed to attacks on MasterCard and Visa, and have seized computers as part of their investigation.
But the boy is only one of a legion of hackers performing these attacks, and they will likely continue for some time. Amazon has been warned that their servers are next on the DDoS target list, but the company reportedly has a strong enough digital infrastructure that it may be difficult to take down. The ranks of Anonymous are only increasing, however, with over 19,000 downloads of their recommended DDoS attack software taking place on December 9th alone.
At this point, it appears that despite WikiLeaks attempts to distance themselves from the activities of Anonymous, the attacks will carry on and continue to escalate this cyberwar. We’ll continue to follow and report on the latest events. Stay tuned…
