16-12-2010, 07:20 AM
WikiLeaks: Police to investigate Anonymous online attacks
Scotland Yard says it has been investigating alleged criminal offences by the group for several months
Josh Halliday
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 December 2010 18.47 GMT
MasterCard came under a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack last week. Photograph: Jonathan Bainbridge/Reuters
The Metropolitan police is to investigate recent online attacks on companies – including Visa, MasterCard and PayPal – that have cut ties with the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks.
Scotland Yard today said that for several months it has been examining a number of alleged criminal offences by Anonymous, the loose-knit group committed to bringing down sites perceived to be acting against WikiLeaks.
Downing Street was this week preparing to face a major attack on its sites from the group after Swedish prosecutors challenged the decision to grant bail to the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, over charges of alleged sex crimes in Sweden.
The Swedish prosecution office's website, aklagare.se, was attacked for 11 hours overnight on Tuesday after it maintained it would press for Assange to be extradited.
The so-called "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks, which bring down sites by overpowering them with repeated requests to load, are illegal in the UK.
The Met said today: "Earlier this year the Metropolitan police received a number of allegations of denial of service cyber attacks against several companies by a group calling themselves Anonymous. We are investigating these criminal allegations and our investigation is ongoing.
"The Metropolitan police service is monitoring the situation relating to recent and ongoing denial of service attacks, and will investigate where appropriate."
Anonymous leapt to the support of WikiLeaks after Amazon and other companies terminated business links with the site. The1,000-strong group of activists launched what they called Operation Payback, vowing to give perceived anti-WikiLeaks firms a "black eye".
Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and the company that hosted WikiLeaks were all brought offline after cutting ties with the whistleblowing website.
Although WikiLeaks has been careful not to support or admonish the cyber-war being waged on its behalf, Assange this week called for all supporters to defend WikiLeaks from "instruments of foreign policy", among which he specifically named the credit card companies.
At least three people, including two Dutch teenagers, have been arrested in the past week on suspicion of participating in the attacks. Most of those involved in the group are believed to be teenagers, based around the world including in the UK.
Experts estimate that about 90% of the group launch their attacks using an application called Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), downloads of which grew substantially last week. Although the group affects to have no hierarchy, operating in what it calls "organised chaos", documents have come to light that suggest a nucleus of decision-makers decides which sites to target.
An attack that exposed the email addresses and passwords of 1.3 million Gawker users has been linked to an Anonymous splinter group. The FBI is to investigate the incident.
• An earlier version of this article mistakenly identified EasyDNS as the hosting provider that cut ties with WikiLeaks. This should have referred to the hosting provider EveryDNS.
Scotland Yard says it has been investigating alleged criminal offences by the group for several months
Josh Halliday
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 December 2010 18.47 GMT
MasterCard came under a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack last week. Photograph: Jonathan Bainbridge/Reuters
The Metropolitan police is to investigate recent online attacks on companies – including Visa, MasterCard and PayPal – that have cut ties with the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks.
Scotland Yard today said that for several months it has been examining a number of alleged criminal offences by Anonymous, the loose-knit group committed to bringing down sites perceived to be acting against WikiLeaks.
Downing Street was this week preparing to face a major attack on its sites from the group after Swedish prosecutors challenged the decision to grant bail to the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, over charges of alleged sex crimes in Sweden.
The Swedish prosecution office's website, aklagare.se, was attacked for 11 hours overnight on Tuesday after it maintained it would press for Assange to be extradited.
The so-called "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks, which bring down sites by overpowering them with repeated requests to load, are illegal in the UK.
The Met said today: "Earlier this year the Metropolitan police received a number of allegations of denial of service cyber attacks against several companies by a group calling themselves Anonymous. We are investigating these criminal allegations and our investigation is ongoing.
"The Metropolitan police service is monitoring the situation relating to recent and ongoing denial of service attacks, and will investigate where appropriate."
Anonymous leapt to the support of WikiLeaks after Amazon and other companies terminated business links with the site. The1,000-strong group of activists launched what they called Operation Payback, vowing to give perceived anti-WikiLeaks firms a "black eye".
Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and the company that hosted WikiLeaks were all brought offline after cutting ties with the whistleblowing website.
Although WikiLeaks has been careful not to support or admonish the cyber-war being waged on its behalf, Assange this week called for all supporters to defend WikiLeaks from "instruments of foreign policy", among which he specifically named the credit card companies.
At least three people, including two Dutch teenagers, have been arrested in the past week on suspicion of participating in the attacks. Most of those involved in the group are believed to be teenagers, based around the world including in the UK.
Experts estimate that about 90% of the group launch their attacks using an application called Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), downloads of which grew substantially last week. Although the group affects to have no hierarchy, operating in what it calls "organised chaos", documents have come to light that suggest a nucleus of decision-makers decides which sites to target.
An attack that exposed the email addresses and passwords of 1.3 million Gawker users has been linked to an Anonymous splinter group. The FBI is to investigate the incident.
• An earlier version of this article mistakenly identified EasyDNS as the hosting provider that cut ties with WikiLeaks. This should have referred to the hosting provider EveryDNS.
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"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass