Hackers Defend WikiLeaks by Attacking PayPal and PostFinance

[JAHGoVeg]

sorry for the hasty post had to get it out here
http://mashable.com/2010/12/08/hackers- ... stfinance/

A group of hackers connected to the online imageboard 4chan, often referred to as Anonymous, have retaliated against several sites that denied service to WikiLeaks shortly after the site started releasing secret embassy cables.

The site of Swiss bank PostFinance, which has closed the account of WikiLeaks (Wikileaks) founder Julian Assange, has been taken down and is still unavailable at the time of this writing. Hackers have also attacked PayPal but have only managed to take down the site’s blog (blog), while the service remained operational.

A spokesman for the group behind the attacks on PayPal and PostFinance said they will target any website that’s “bowing down to government pressure.” The same group is allegedly behind the series of attacks collectively called “Operation: Payback,” which targeted anti-piracy organizations such as RIAA and MPAA.

Among other companies that have denied service to WikiLeaks are DNS service provider EveryDNS.net and Amazon (Amazon.com). Most of these sites claim they haven’t shut down WikiLeaks’ account due to political pressure, instead naming technical or procedural reasons for denying the service to the WikiLeaks.

Update: Mastercard, which has also denied service to WikiLeaks, has had its site taken down by hackers, too.

[via ArsTechnica]

[JAHGoVeg]

[the stroy as from ArsTechnica]


The forces of Anonymous have taken aim at several companies who are refusing to do business with WikiLeaks. 4chan's hordes have launched distributed denial-of-service attacks against PayPal, Swiss bank PostFinance, and other sites that have hindered the whistleblowing site's operations.

A self-styled spokesman for the group calling himself "Coldblood" has said that any website that's "bowing down to government pressure" is a target. PayPal ceased processing donations to the site, and PostFinance froze WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's account. The attacks are being performed under the Operation: Payback banner; Operation: Payback is the name the group is using in its long-running attacks on the RIAA, MPAA, and other organizations involved with anti-piracy lawsuits.

The initial attacks against PayPal were substantially ineffective; the PayPal blog was taken offline, but the main PayPal site wasn't harmed. The attacks against PostFinance, however, have resulted in the bank's website being unavailable for more than 16 hours. It remains unavailable at the time of writing. The latest target is the site of the Swedish prosecutors in Assange's sexual misconduct trial. This too appears to be offline. Twitter has also been named as a future attack target, due to its claimed censorship of the #wikileaks hashtag.

The companies being attacked deny that their behavior is a result of government influence. Rather, they are claiming that WikiLeaks and Assange have failed to adhere to the terms of use of various services. Amazon, which for a time hosted the site, said that WikiLeaks was failing to ensure that it "wasn't putting innocent people in jeopardy." PostFinance said that Assange lied on an application form.

In a case of tit-for-tat, unknown forces have since launched a denial of service attack against Anonymous' own site (one that took it offline shortly after publication), though the IRC channel used for coordination is still operational, and its denial-of-service software, LOIC, is still functioning properly.

WikiLeaks was itself the target of massive denial of service attacks in the wake of its release of thousands of US embassy cables. The source of these attacks remains unknown. In addition to making the main WikiLeaks site hard to access, DoS attacks against DNS provider EveryDNS resulted in the company cutting WikiLeaks off, as it was unwilling to tolerate the excess traffic.

In spite of this, hundreds of mirrors of the site have popped up across the globe, with Anonymous claiming to have created many of them. An "insurance file"—an encrypted torrent of the entire cable dump—has been widely distributed, along with the promise that the decryption key will be published should anything bad happen to WikiLeaks.

Assange himself is currently being detained in custody in the UK. Swedish prosecutors are seeking to have him extradited to face sexual misconduct charges. He surrendered to police in London and was arrested. Bail was refused over fears that he might flee, and also due to some fear that he was at risk from "unstable persons." With widespread calls for his murder, this might not be too far-fetched.

[JAHGoVeg]

update, Visa is now down too!

https://twitter.com/Anon_Operation/

[crustyasp46]

If any of the forces of Anonymous are found more sexual misconduct charges

[Hot Trout]

This is an excellent thread. I am making this a hot topic, please update as required.

[Kherr]

Wikipedia gets updated pretty regularly too... I figure this might be of interest to some.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks

[crustyasp46]

'Coldblood', a member of the group Anonymous, tells Jane Wakefield why he views its attacks on Visa and Mastercard as defence of Wikileaks.

The data war between companies that have refused to do business with Wikileaks and the online activists keen to defend it is getting more intense.

The tool through which attacks are carried out against websites perceived to be anti-Wikileaks has now been downloaded more than 31,000 times.

Security experts warned people to avoid joining the voluntary botnet.

Targets of the loose-knit group Anonymous have so far included Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.

Amazon is expected to be among firms targeted next using the Anonymous attack tool known as LOIC. When a person installs the tool on their PC it enrols the machine into a voluntary botnet which then bombards target sites with data.

Motivation
Anonymous member Coldblood told the BBC that he did not understand how firms such as Visa and Mastercard have decided that Wikileaks is illegal.

"We feel that they have bowed to government pressure. They say Wikileaks broke their terms and conditions but they accept payments from groups such as the Klu Klux Klan," he told the BBC.

He said that he has not personally taken part in the recent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks but explained the motives of those who have.

"Everyone is aware that they are illegal but they feel that it is a worthy cause and the possible outcome outweighs the risk," he said.

He said such attacks were only one tactic in its fight to keep the information being distributed by Wikileaks available.

These Anonymous attacks are like riding a bull, they can change wildly and at a moment's notice”

Paul Sop
Prolexic
In a twist to the story it has emerged that Amazon, which last week refused to host Wikileaks, is selling a Kindle version of the documents Wikileaks has leaked.

Anonymous have named the online retailer as its next target.

Earlier attacks against Visa and Mastercard knocked the official websites of the two offline for a while and resulted in problems for some credit card holders.

The attacks have been relatively small so far mustering less then 10 gigabits per second of traffic, said Paul Sop, chief technology officer at Prolexic which helps firms to defend themselves against the type of attack being employed by Anonymous.


Anonymous has published its manifesto
"What's really wreaking havoc with these enterprises is how often the attackers can rotate the attack vectors," he said. "We see the attack complexity being more devastating as the mitigation technologies enterprises use can't filter out all these permutations."

Defending against an attack typically involves analysis to work out which ones are being employed. A tactic that may not work well in this case, he said.

"These Anonymous attacks are like riding a bull, they can change wildly and at a moment's notice," said Mr Sop.

Carole Thierault, a security researcher at Sophos, warned against getting involved with the Anonymous campaign.

"No-one, no matter how much you want to take part, should do this," she said. "It is very risky, and most probably illegal."

Ms Thierault said downloading and installing the LOIC attack tool was very risky.

"No-one should download unknown code on to their system," she said. "You're giving access to your computer to a complete stranger."

Coinciding ideals

Anonymous is taking action against sites it deems to be hampering the work of Wikileaks
As well as releasing the attack tool, the Anonymous group has also been active in helping to create mirror sites. To date there are over one thousand sites offering exact copies of the content on Wikileaks.

It is also ensuring the information is available on dark nets, heavily encrypted layers of the internet via which information can be extracted while remaining untraceable.

The DDoS attacks are the latest battle in a wider fight known as Operation Payback, which targets firms Anonymous sees as "misusing the internet".

Past targets include the music industry and law firms associated with the attempt to bring music pirates to book.

The new-found attention on Anonymous has led the group to publish its manifesto.

In it, it denies that it is a group of hackers.

"Anonymous is not an organisation...and it most certainly is not a group of hackers," it said.

"Anonymous is an online living consciousness, comprised of different individuals with, at times, coinciding ideals and goals."

It also keen to distance itself from Coldblood, who it said is not a spokesperson for the group.

source: BBC

[JAHGoVeg]

HELLO!!! The twitter acount

http://twitter.com/Anon_Operations

http://twitter.com/Anon_Operationn

[Guest]

Just downloaded the Wikileaks Cable torrent. Im sure many many people already have and its gonna be funny "if" they shut down wikileaks how many mirrors are going to pop up INSTANTLY. There is no way this is ever going away and yet they are still fighting it.

[crustyasp46]

I am now beginning to wonder if this is now becoming a new world revolution ? An awakening of the world populace, to the corruption and disregard and contempt that politicians and big business has for the common people of the world? I have never experienced or seen such a large scale uprising of emotions and reaction in such a short period of time, and everywhere I went today it seemed that it was the only topic !

It brings back memories of JFK, John Lennon, and 911. Good or bad I can't judge. But definitely interesting and educating