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Operation Avenge Assange

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Following the whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks’ unprecedented expose of documents, most recently those containing US diplomatic cables which have roused, if not radicalized, spirited support for what is hoped to be a new capacity of the power of knowledge, and the usual broken-record (ad nauseum) right wing spin about security, and the abuse of government power and legal procedure against WikLeaks founder Julian Assange, to the extent of surveillance on his legal counsel:

In December 2010, elements of the US government criticized Assange, and pressed the affiliates of WikiLeaks to halt their transactions with the Swiss-based website.

Corporations such as Amazon, PayPal, BankAmerica, PostFinance, MasterCard and Visa either stopped working with or froze donations to WikiLeaks, some due to political pressures.

WikiLeak’s server host Amazon dropped their hosting of the WikiLeaks servers less than a day after being contacted by the office of Senator Joe Lieberman, while PayPal ceased all transactions of funds donated by the supporters of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Visa, and most recently, Mastercard, followed PayPal. Official statements from these respective companies cite such reasons as Terms of Service violations and pending investigations.

Anonymous, an anarchistic amalgamations of hacktivists who undertake protests and other actions under the notional title "Anonymous," which derives from the same meme as its use on the internet, determined to respond.

File:Avenge Assange Anonymous.png
Flier for Operation Avenge Assange

Operation Payback directed their activities against these companies for dropping support to WikiLeaks.[1][2]

Operation Payback launched DDoS attacks against PayPal, the Swiss bank PostFinance and the Swedish Prosecution Authority.[3][4][5] On 8 December 2010, a coordinated DDoS attack by Operation Payback brought down both the MasterCard and Visa websites.[6][7][8][9] On 9th December 2010, prior to a sustained DDoS attack on the Paypal website that caused a minor slowdown to their service, Paypal announced on its blog that they would release all remaining funds in the account of the Wau Holland Foundation that was raising funds for WikiLeaks, but would not reactivate the account.[10][11]

Regarding the attacks, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson denied any relation to the group and said: “We neither condemn nor applaud these attacks. We believe they are a reflection of public opinion on the actions of the targets.”[12] On the same day, a 16-year-old boy was arrested in The Hague, Netherlands, in connection with the distributed denial-of-service attacks against MasterCard and PayPal.[13][14][15] The boy was an IRC operator under the nickname of Jeroenz0r.[16]

On 10 December 2010, The Daily Telegraph reported that Anonymous had threatened to disrupt British government websites if Assange were extradited to Sweden.[17] Anonymous issued a press release[18] in an attempt to clarify the issue.[19]

Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow described the attacks as "the shot heard round the world—this is Lexington."[20]


The following is a list of sites and domain known to have been targeted:

Target Site Attack time Ref.
PostFinance postfinance.ch 2010-12-06 [3]
Swedish Prosecution Authority aklagare.se 2010-12-07 [21]
EveryDNS everydns.com 2010-12-07 [1]
Joseph Lieberman lieberman.senate.gov 2010-12-08 [22]
MasterCard mastercard.com 2010-12-08 [23]
Borgstrom and Bodström advbyra.se 2010-12-08 [22]
Visa visa.com 2010-12-08 [24]
Sarah Palin sarahpac.com 2010-12-08 [25]
PayPal thepaypalblog.com 2010-12-09 [26]
Amazon amazon.com 2010-12-09
(Aborted) 		[27]
[28]
PayPal api.paypal.com:443 2010-12-10 [29]
MoneyBookers moneybookers.com 2010-12-10 [30]
Conservatives4Palin conservatives4palin.com 2010-12-10 [31]

Operation Payback's attempt to take down Amazon.com was aborted after it failed to make a significant impact on that site's performance.[27] The failed DDoS attack has been attributed to Amazon's massive server capacity, which is normally used to handle the excessive traffic during the December holiday shopping season.[32]

In late December the FBI began to raid suspected participants in Operation Payback.[33]

On January 3, 2011 Anonymous group brought down Zimbabwean government website after President Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace Mugabe, sued a newspaper for US $15 million for publishing a WikiLeaks cable that linked her with the alleged trade in illicit diamonds.[34] On January 27, 2011, five males aged between 15 and 26 were arrested in early morning raids in the U.K. on suspicion of involvement[35] and 40 search warrants were executed on the same day by the FBI.[36]

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Correll, Sean-Paul Operation:Payback broadens to “Operation Avenge Assange”. pandasecurity.com. Panda Security. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  2. ↑ Mackey, Robert Latest Updates on Leak of U.S. Cables, Day 9. NYTimes.com. The New York Times. URL accessed on 2010-12-07.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Tencer, Daniel Hackers take down website of bank that froze WikiLeaks funds. The Raw Story. URL accessed on 2010-12-07.
  4. ↑ WikiLeaks US embassy cables: live updates. The Guardian. URL accessed on 2010-12-07.
  5. ↑ Rashid, Fahmida Y. PayPal, PostFinance Hit by DoS Attacks, Counter-Attack in Progress. eWeek.com. URL accessed on 2010-12-07.
  6. ↑ Weisenthal, Joe (2010-12-08). "Cyberwar: Now Hackers Have Taken Down Mastercard.com As Revenge For Julian Assange". Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/cyber-hackers-that-took-down-swiss-bank-site-have-now-taken-down-mastercardcom-2010-12. Retrieved 2010-12-23. </li>
  7. ↑ WikiLeaks supporters disrupt Visa and MasterCard sites in 'Operation Payback'. guardian.co.uk. The Guardian. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  8. ↑ Horn, Leslie 'Anonymous' Launches DDoS Attacks Against WikiLeaks Foes. pcmag.com. PC Magazine. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  9. ↑ Jardin, Xeni Continuing pro-WikiLeaks DDOS actions, Anonymous takes down PayPal.com. boingboing.net. Boing Boing. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  10. ↑ Muller, John Updated Statement about WikiLeaks from PayPal General Counsel, John Muller. thepaypalblog.com. PayPal. Archived from source 2011-01-07. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  11. ↑ Vasquez, Bertrand PayPal Vows to Release WikiLeaks Funds, Account to Remain Blocked. erictric.com. Erictric. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  12. ↑ Statement on DDOS attacks. wikileaks.ch. WikiLeaks. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  13. ↑ The CNN Wire Staff. Pro-WikiLeaks hackers change target to PayPal. edition.cnn.com. CNN. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  14. ↑ Cluley, Graham Dutch boy arrested for WikiLeaks-related DDoS attacks on Mastercard and PayPal. nakedsecurity.sophos.com. Sophos. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  15. ↑ Parket, Landelijk 16-jarige jongen aangehouden vanwege WikiLeaks-aanvallen. om.nl. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  16. ↑ Ernesto. Anonymous’ Operation Payback IRC Operator Arrested. TorrentFreak. URL accessed on 2011-01-07.
  17. ↑ Swinford, Steven WikiLeaks Hackers Threaten British Government. telegraph.co.uk. The Daily Telegraph. URL accessed on 2010-12-10.
  18. ↑ Dump.no
  19. ↑ Nixon, James Who are Anonymous? And what do they want?. thinq.co.uk. URL accessed on 2010-12-10.
  20. ↑ Cohen, Noam (December 10, 2010). "Web Attackers Find a Cause in WikiLeaks". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/world/10wiki.html. Retrieved 11 December 2010. </li>
  21. ↑ Halliday, Josh WikiLeaks: Police to investigate Anonymous online attacks. The Guardian. URL accessed on 2011-01-06.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Correll, Sean-Paul ‘Tis the Season of DDoS – WikiLeaks Edition. PandaLabs. URL accessed on 2011-01-07.
  23. ↑ Esther Addley and Josh Halliday. Operation Payback cripples Mastercard site in revenge for WikiLeaks ban. The Guardian. URL accessed on 2010-12-31.
  24. ↑ Mills, Elinor Facebook, Twitter boot WikiLeaks supporters after Visa attack. news.cnet.com. Cnet. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  25. ↑ Tapper, Jake Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks Supporters in 'Operation Payback'. abcnews.com. ABC News. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  26. ↑ Prodhan, Georgina WikiLeaks supporters' group abandons cyber attacks. Reuters. Archived from source 2011-01-07. URL accessed on 2011-01-07.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Mutton, Paul Operation Payback aborts attack against Amazon.com. netcraft.com. Netcraft. URL accessed on 2010-12-10.
  28. ↑ Perez, Sarah Operation Payback Targets Amazon; Wikileaks Cables Found in Kindle Book Store. readwriteweb.com. ReadWriteWeb. URL accessed on 2010-12-09.
  29. ↑ Update on PayPal site status. Archived from source 2011-01-07. URL accessed on 2011-01-07.
  30. ↑ Maclean, William Activists target Dutch website after boy arrested. Reuters. Archived from source 2011-01-07. URL accessed on 2011-01-07.
  31. ↑ Lazaran, Ian We’re Temporarily Moving Back to Blogger As We’re Under Attack. conservatives4palin.com. Archived from source 2011-01-06. URL accessed on 2011-01-06.
  32. ↑ Pepitone, Julianne Why attackers can't take down Amazon.com. CNNMoney.com. CNN.com. URL accessed on 2010-12-14.
  33. ↑ McMillan, Robert FBI raids ISP in Anonymous DDoS investigation. Computerworld.com. computerworld.com. URL accessed on 2010-12-30.
  34. ↑ SMH.com.au
  35. ↑ Five arrested over 'Anonymous' web attacks. BBC News. URL accessed on 30 January 2011.
  36. ↑ Savage, Charlie F.B.I. Warrants Into Service Attacks by WikiLeaks Supporters. The New York Times. URL accessed on 2011-01-30.

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