subject: Hackers make it in the name of WikiLeaks [print this page] Hackers make it in the name of WikiLeaks Hackers make it in the name of WikiLeaks
Wikileaks is known for illegally obtaining hundreds of thousands of classified and sensitive US government documents, then either releasing or threatening to release them. Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, is in police custody on unrelated rape charges that originated in Sweden. But the speculation and fear is that the US government will get its hands on Mr. Assange, who potentially faces grave criminal charges.On Wednesday, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and the Swiss bank, PostFinance were attacked with enough success to shut them down for significant periods of time. Senator Joe Lieberman and Sarah Palin announced that their websites had been hacked, also, with speculation that their extreme comments about Mr Assange's criminal sanctions were the cause of their being targeted."Anonymous" is self identified as an "anti-authoritarian" organization that works toward freeing up of any internet content for the benefit of internet pirates and others. The group sometimes uses a symbol of a headless man wearing a suit or the mask from the fictional film "V For Vendetta". Wikileaks denies any affiliation with the group.
Is WikiLeaks right in making the 'secret' documents public?
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Currently, the group is responding to wide scale shutdowns of Wikileaks accounts at service providers and of financial institutions like Visa that were conduits for donations or that hosted sites where the documents were released.The Anonymous group has been known to get into dust ups with KISS front man Gene Simmons, the Church of Scientology, and sites that promote tougher internet copyright rules.The general concern that led to the shutdown and denial of service to Wikileaks was that other customers of such sites as Amazon.com and Visa would be harmed by anti-Wikileaks DNS attacks. In other words, the major web hosting sites and financial sites are caught in the middle, between attacks that either come from pro or anti Wikileaks entities.Many can be relieved to know that the Visa and the other major websites have extraordinary security resources. The DNS attacks may shut down access for a while, so that each packet of incoming data can be examined for malicious code, but that customer records remain safe and sound.
