Community | December 07, 2010 | 26 comments

Hackers have waged war on banks that target WikiLeaks

Yesterday we reported that the Swiss bank PostFinance froze WikiLeaks account which held 31,000 euros for Julian Assange's defense fund.

A few hours later the bank's website crashed as a result of an attack by hackers that go by the name of Anon_Operation on Twitter.

They have been running "Operation: Payback" which they say is an ongoing campaign by [them] against major anti-piracy groups.

The cyber war is now definitely on as PostFinance is back up an running but the hackers' site The AnonOps.net is currently down due to heavy DDoS attacks.  

The hackers are also targeting MasterCard and PayPal - both companies have severed their ties with WikiLeaks and frozen their assets.

Below is a video uploaded by the hacker collective on their YouTube channel.




Operation Payback - Anonymous Message About ACTA Laws, Internet Censorship and Copyright

[video script]


Operation Payback (is a bitch), this is the Internet, we run this. An open message from Anonymous to the governments of the world and their legal leeches regarding the motivation of the cyber protests.

Corrupt governments of the world, we are anonymous. For some time now, voices have been crying out in unison against the new ACTA laws. The gross inadequacies of the new laws being passed internationally have been pointed out repeatedly. Our chief complaint is that such measures would restrict people's access to the internet.

In these modern times access to the internet is fast becoming a basic human right. Just like any other basic human right, we believe that it is wrong to infringe upon it. To threaten to cut people off from the global consciousness as you have is criminal and abhorrent. To move to censor content on the internet based on your own prejudice is at best laughably impossible, at worst, morally reprehensible.

The unjust restrictions you impose on us will meet with disaster and only strengthen our resolve to disobey and rebel against your tyranny. Such actions taken against you, and those you out source your malignant litigation too, are inevitable, unavoidable and unstoppable.

We Are Anonymous,

We Are Legion And Divided By Zero.

We Do Not Forgive Internet Censorship

And We Do Not Forget Free Speech.

We Are Over 9000,

Expect Us!

  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Technology
  2. tags:
    Hackers,  DDOS,  Banks,  Wikileaks,  3 more
  3. recommended by:
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26 comments // Hackers have waged war on banks that target WikiLeaks

  • alexandrekBack
  • avg_american
  • nikonwilly
  • VFORVENDETTA
  • percipi224
    • 0
      percipi224  

    • this is so much like the radio broadcasts of the wars of the last century. fight them. those who are underground need out help. if nothing else but to be a witness. the internet of the mind and soul is our true power.

    • 8 months ago
  • mastroiannic
  • a619ko
  • toyotabedzrock
  • conscious_bluemonkey
  • CalgarC
  • ayipis
  • CalgarC
  • conscious_bluemonkey
  • simonpc123
  • ras_menelik
    • +3
      ras_menelik  

    • Share
      Wikileak Wars: Facebook supports them, Twitter is shaky, hackers take down Swiss bank that refused them
      By Anna Leach on December 7, 2010 Comments (0)
      The big players in the online world are being forced to take sides on Wikileaks, after the US government has leant on companies from PayPal to Amazon to drop their services to the Wikileaks website.

      Amazon have withdrawn use of their servers from Wikileaks, PayPal have cancelled the Wikileaks account, and the DNS server has been pressured to pull the domain- meaning that currently the site is not accessible.

      Mastercard, Visa and the Swiss bank Post Finance where the Wikileaks account was held have also frozen all of Wikileaks' assets.

      Facebook however is standing by Wikileaks - according to ReadWriteWeb, Facebook issued a statement saying that they would let Wikileaks continue to post to fans from their Facebook page:

      "The Wikileaks Facebook Page does not violate our content standards nor have we encountered any material posted on the page that violates our policies."

      As is Twitter - though they were less sure if the Wikileaks account could continue indefinitely. When ReadWriteWeb asked point blank about whether it will permit the Wikileaks account to remain online or whether it will be shut down, Twitter's Matt Graves told them, "We've got no additional comment beyond the statement.""

      It seems like there has been some retribution from the interwebs with hackers taking down the Swiss bank PostFinance that has revoked Wikileaks' account with a DDOS attack on Monday night, as reported on techyum

      The pro-Wikileaks hackers, operating under the name Anon_Operations (www.anonops.net) called their attack "Operation Payback."

      As they tweeted: "The KKK can receive payments via Visa and PayPal but #Wikileaks cannot. What a just world we live in."

      The struggle continues..

    • 1 year ago
  • telcod
  • ras_menelik
    • +4
      ras_menelik  

    • There has been quite a lot of chatter online about this case, politically there are long standing disputes between India and Pakistan and naturally these also extend to online wars – which inevitably end in defacement.

      The latest target from the group calling themselves the Pakistani Cyber Army was the site for the Central Bureau of Investigation in India – http://cbi.nic.in/.

      Almost 4 days after the defacement, the site still appears to be down.

      Close to four days after the site of India’s key investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), was hacked and defaced, the web site is still inaccessible to users.
      The CBI is doing a thorough security audit, and plugging all holes to prevent another hack, Vinita Thakur, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. She didn’t say when that would be complete, and the site restored.
      The web site of the CBI was hacked and defaced on Friday night. The hackers calling themselves the “Pakistani Cyber Army” left a message saying that the attack was in revenge for similar Indian attacks on Pakistani sites.
      The CBI’s IT systems were not compromised by the hack, as the web site and the CBI’s computer systems are separate, Thakur said.
      They say they are doing a thorough audit and they are going to plug all the holes, but in reality – we know that’s not true because it’s not possible. They both seem to be stuck in a catch 22 situation as both the Indian and Pakistani sides continue with revenge attacks for the previous defacement.

      Almost immediately after this attack the Indian Cyber Army executed another hack and deface job to retaliate. And well, whatever happens after this – it’s not going to be pretty for either side.

      The information that the hackers had access to was public information, she added.
      The border dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir has often spilled online, with both sides attempting to hack each other’s web sites.
      The web site of Pakistan’s Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority was hacked on Saturday by a group called “Indian Cyber Army” in retaliation for the CBI web site hack, according to media reports from Pakistan.
      The web site which displayed the message “This Account has been suspended” late Saturday, has since been restored.
      The Pakistani site that was attacked is back up and accessible to the public again, but as of now I’m still seeing some database access error messages in the sidebar and at the top of the page – http://www.ogra.org.pk/.

      My guess would be that this is not going to stop any time soon.

      Source: Network World

    • 1 year ago
  • ras_menelik
    • +4
      ras_menelik  

    • Born in July 1971 in Townsville on Australia's Queensland coast, Assange has spent his entire life traveling. His parents worked in theater and were often on the road.

      "LIGHTNING ROD"

      In his teens, he gained a reputation as a sophisticated computer programer before being arrested in 1995 and pleading guilty to hacking. He avoided prison on condition he did not reoffend and in his late 20s went to Melbourne University to study mathematics and physics.

      He founded WikiLeaks in 2006, creating a web-based "dead letter drop" for would-be leakers.

      Assange says he never wanted to become the public face of WikiLeaks. Initially, he says his plan was that the organization had no public face at all "because I wanted egos to play no part in activities."

      But he said this quickly became a distraction, with random individuals on the Internet claiming to represent the group.

      Before the latest leak, the website had some five full-time staff, several dozen active volunteers and 800 part-time volunteers. Assange says he is effectively its publisher and editor-in-chief, although he still conducts his own research.

      "In the end, someone must be responsible to the public and only a leadership that is willing to be publicly courageous can genuinely suggest that sources take risks for the greater good," he told a web chat with Britain's Guardian newspaper.

      "In that process, I have become a lightning rod. I get undue attacks on every aspect of my life, but I also get undue credit as some kind of balancing force."

      (Editing by Janet Lawrence)

    • 1 year ago
  • pjacobs51
  • robertkferrell
  • telcod
  • Darevalo
  • artemis6
  • andreii
  • artemis6
  • telcod
    • +2
      telcod  
    • artemis6:

      Let's hope is the end of capital and the reduction of the power of talking monkeys. Give you 2 chickens for that nuclear warhead, friend. Perspective.

    • 1 year ago
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