SECOND UPDATE: Perhaps this might have something to do with VISA and MasterCard’s support for the US government.
UPDATE: as of approximately 4pm EST, VISA.com is also down, thanks to the same crew. I can’t imagine it’ll be much longer before PayPal gets the same treatment, though (owing to the fact that they are an entirely Internet-based company) they may be better prepared to defend against such attacks. A PayPal spokesman has admitted that it was “State Department pressure” which caused their corporate decision to sever WikiLeaks’ cord. In a disgusting, Hitler-youth-esque twist, the PayPal spokesman said that the State Department hadn’t actually even contacted them; instead, PayPal had decided to “turn in” WikiLeaksbecause Foggy Bottom said WikiLeaks had broken the law. Oy.
A group of anonymous Internet hackers calling itself Operation Payback announced on Twitter that they haz succeeded in bringing down the MasterCard site – still down as of this writing – in response to MasterCard’s refusal to accept donations to WikiLeaks. Watch their video warning:
