4chan brings down Mastercard for being anti-wikileaks

[GroobySteven]

Is this the first true public cyber battle? Hackers and governments bring down Wikileaks and the people supporting them - and in return, different hackers unite to bring down those.
Where does this end?
I actually take the people who are doing this - and the ones, that brought down Wikileaks (and the Governments who helped them) as far more detrimental to us than anything else that has came from this.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11935539


Internet hacktivists are claiming to have brought down the Mastercard website as revenge for the firm withdrawing services to Wikileaks.
The Anonymous group of hackers have also brought down the website of the Swedish prosecutors office which is pursuing founder Julian Assange.
It has pledged to launch denial-of-service attacks on websites it sees as anti-Wikileaks.
Earlier it hit the Swiss bank that froze Mr Assange's assets.
PayPal, which has stopped processing donations to Wikileaks, has also been targeted.
Anonymous is a loose-knit group of hacktivists, with links to the notorious message board 4chan.
"We are glad to tell you that Mastercard is down and it's confirmed," the group tweeted.
Mastercard has not yet spoken out about it but security experts have said the site has been under a so-called distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS), which swamp a site with so many requests that it becomes overwhelmed,
However, access appears to be possible intermittently and it is still visible from some countries, experts say.
Earlier the group confirmed other targets: "In response to the arrest of Julian Assange, Anonymous has taken down PostFinance.ch, who terminated Wikileaks bank account, using a distributed denial-of-service attack. Subsequently, Anonymous attacked http://www.aklagare.se, the Swedish Prosecutors office, also using a DDoS attack, and took the site down in under 10 seconds of beginning the attack," the group said in a statement.
Noa Bar Yosef, a senior analyst at security firm Imperva said the attacks are "very focused".
"It is recruiting people from within their own network. They are actually asking supporters to download a piece of code, the DDoSing malware, and upon a wake-up call the computer engages in the denial of service," he said.

Before the Mastercard attack, a member of Anonymous, who calls himself Coldblood, told the BBC that "multiple things are being done".
"Websites that are bowing down to government pressure have become targets," he said.
"As an organisation we have always taken a strong stance on censorship and freedom of expression on the internet and come out against those who seek to destroy it by any means."
"We feel that Wikileaks has become more than just about leaking of documents, it has become a war ground, the people vs. the government," he said.
Some of the early DDoS hits failed to take sites offline, although that was not the point of the attacks, according to Coldblood.
"The idea is not to wipe them off but to give the companies a wake-up call," he said. "Companies will notice the increase in traffic and an increase in traffic means increase in costs associated with running a website."
DDoS attacks are illegal in many countries, including the UK.
Coldblood admitted that such attacks "may hurt people trying to get to these sites" but said it was "the only effective way to tell these companies that us, the people, are displeased".
Anonymous is also helping to create hundreds of mirror sites for Wikileaks, after its US domain name provider withdrew its services.

Ending contracts
The attacks are part of an ongoing infowar involving Wikileaks.
The whistle-blowing site has also been hit by a series of DDoS attacks, following the release of a quarter of a million US embassy cables.

[GroobySteven]

Which brings up the interesting question, can you live without the internet? Not just for a vacation but if it went down forever?

I'd be fucked for a bit, not just for work but keeping in touch with everyone. My hand muscles would have to reallign from being used for the reverse left hand shuffle and learn how to use a pen, again for a start.

[kieron]

good on the hacktivists for bringing down mastercard and visa! why can one not donate to wikileaks when visa still allows one to donate to the KKK?????

Visa/MC are fucking Morons.

I'm cancelling my VISA debit card tomorrow after work (will ask for scissors from the cashier and cut it up in front of them) and telling everybody in the bank about it.

Following pasted from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...e#comment-fold



Perhaps swamping VISA and Mastercard with complaints as to why they've stopped processing payments for wikileaks and the legal defence fund for Julian?


Especially since they can't have a moral argument -


4.14pm: Charles Arthur, the Guardian's technology editor, points out that while MasterCard and Visa have cut WikiLeaks off you can still use those cards to donate to overtly racist organisations such as the Knights Party, which is supported by the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan website directs users to a site called Christian Concepts. It takes Visa and MasterCard donations for users willing to state that they are "white and not of racially mixed descent. I am not married to a non-white. I do not date non-whites nor do I have non-white dependents. I believe in the ideals of western Christian civilisation and profess my belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God."


Email VISA/Mastercard here:


Peter Ayliffe is the CEO of Visa Europe: ayliffep@visa.com



enquiries.europe@visa.com


And Mastercard: consumer_inquiries@mastercard.com


If they want a war...

[lisaparadise]

good on the hacktivists for bringing down mastercard and visa! why can one not donate to wikileaks when visa still allows one to donate to the KKK?????

Visa/MC are fucking Morons.

I'm cancelling my VISA debit card tomorrow after work (will ask for scissors from the cashier and cut it up in front of them) and telling everybody in the bank about it.

Following pasted from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...e#comment-fold



Perhaps swamping VISA and Mastercard with complaints as to why they've stopped processing payments for wikileaks and the legal defence fund for Julian?


Especially since they can't have a moral argument -


4.14pm: Charles Arthur, the Guardian's technology editor, points out that while MasterCard and Visa have cut WikiLeaks off you can still use those cards to donate to overtly racist organisations such as the Knights Party, which is supported by the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan website directs users to a site called Christian Concepts. It takes Visa and MasterCard donations for users willing to state that they are "white and not of racially mixed descent. I am not married to a non-white. I do not date non-whites nor do I have non-white dependents. I believe in the ideals of western Christian civilisation and profess my belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God."


Email VISA/Mastercard here:


Peter Ayliffe is the CEO of Visa Europe: ayliffep@visa.com



enquiries.europe@visa.com


And Mastercard: consumer_inquiries@mastercard.com


If they want a war...

dude spin out of it you sound like a spoilled brat who got his favorite toy taken away for gods sake now go cut up your card you know the one you cant afford in the first place and have a party do you really think the bank really gives a shit if you cut up the card in front of them? spew your bullshit and watch the tellers laugh there asses off and hopefully one of them will put it on youtube so the rest of us can see what a retard you are.

[JoePitt]

Well, the next time Keiron tries to rent a car or book a hotel room, he'll regret not having a credit card Lisa.

[aprilian]

With this latest "release" I consider WikiLeaks no more than a cross between The Huffington Post and Perez Hilton. There is no story here ,other than "look what I can do!!!"

Well isnt that precious Stuart.

[Ryz]

4chan <3

[kieron]

my card was actually a Visa Debit card to allow myself to pay for things with my own money (not the banks), I don't have ANY credit cards to my name, I live off my weekly pay and won't get sucked in to having a credit card,

in saying that I may apply for one or two cards, take the limits to the max (around AU$50,000 each if I can) and then take all the money out, hide the money overseas and declare myself bankrupt, that would fuck Visa and Mastercard in the process.

[kieron]

@ Lisa:

Look at who Visa still processes donations for!!!! If you have a Visa card you are supporting Racism indirectly! and if you have either or both you are supporting Censorship and violations of the US First Ammendment.

[CORVETTEDUDE]

dude spin out of it you sound like a spoilled brat who got his favorite toy taken away for gods sake now go cut up your card you know the one you cant afford in the first place and have a party do you really think the bank really gives a shit if you cut up the card in front of them? spew your bullshit and watch the tellers laugh there asses off and hopefully one of them will put it on youtube so the rest of us can see what a retard you are.

Ditto!!!