PayPal, Visa, MasterCard and others have come under DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks by a group of online activist called Anonymous over the last week for withdrawing their services to WikiLeaks. In a move dubbed Operation Payback, volunteers download what is in effect a modified network load-testing application onto their machines, which proceeds to hammer a site based on downloaded instructions from a central node.

Results so far are mixed, with MasterCard's website and PayPal's blog being inaccessible for periods of time over the last week. So what is WikiLeak's position toward the cyber attacks? While denying any contact with Anonymous, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson adopted a neutral stance in a statement: "We neither condemn nor applaud these attacks. We believe they are a reflection of public opinion on the actions of the targets."

The situation is fluid at the moment, with a Dutch teenager arrested earlier in the week in connection with the attacks on MasterCard and PayPal. The ease at which services were disrupted--at least momentarily--for the large corporate entities involved is somewhat worrying though, and could well influence the way network capacity is provisioned for in future.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Bloomberg
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at Metro

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