Hackers strike at MasterCard to support WikiLeaks

(AP) ? 15 hours ago

LONDON (AP) ? Hackers rushed to the defense of WikiLeaks on Wednesday, launching attacks on MasterCard, Swedish prosecutors, a Swiss bank and others who have acted against the site and its jailed founder Julian Assange.

Internet "hacktivists" operating under the label "Operation Payback" claimed responsibility in a Twitter message for causing severe technological problems at the website for MasterCard, which pulled the plug on its relationship with WikiLeaks a day ago.

MasterCard acknowledged "a service disruption" involving its Secure Code system for verifying online payments. It was not clear how widespread the problem was. Earlier, MasterCard spokesman James Issokson said consumers could still use their credit cards for secure transactions.

The online attacks are part of a wave of support for WikiLeaks that is sweeping the Internet. Twitter was choked with messages of solidarity for the group, while the site's Facebook page hit 1 million fans



https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iKvaaSJYoi79D4tuIdFNP_9Ru4CQ?docId=786bf5ece4db41c190a0f8f0a1013424


I don't know any thing much about how hackers go about hacking into others systems .
But they can get into the credit card companies systems and pay pals system enough to disrupt service to show their support of WikiLeaks and it's founder Julian Assange . That makes it seem like it's just a waste of time and money to try and protect a personal home PC . of course not many home PC's have anything to catch the attention of hackers like the guys in this article, and it's viruses ,worms and such we protect our home PC's from.
But as I was reading the article all this was going though my mind .

if anything home PCs were likely used in this attack, which is why you should keep your home pc protected, as often unprotected PCs are used, unknown to the owner in these attacks.

and as far as i know, this attack originated from 4chan and was in response to master card and others refusing to process donations too wikileaks.

also note this isn't really a hack, and no information can be obtained from the attacked website, it essentially just shuts the website down for while.

it's pretty pointless, and doesn't achieve anything.

basically this whole thing was caused by a load of pathetic teenagers (and others with mindset of a teenager) pretending to be hackers.

Are you 'guessing' that the disruptions in services and flooding the websites and bank systems with requests for data and with traffic is being done by teenagers from home computers or do you have an article reporting this ?

It seems to me that their are a whole lot supposedly secure sites like Swiss banks and credit card companies and pay pal , the Swiss postal services, and a Swiss bank ,,, are being disrupted and messed with ,
If it is kids using their home PC's , those are some pretty computer savvy kids .

no im not guessing, thing is with 4chan and the whole "anonymous" group, they're more talk then bite, they're go on about being "anonymous" and how there are so many of them, but when it comes to it, they achieve f*** all, apart from some minor annoyances to the attacked websites.

so yes, you can bet they made a song and dance about attacking these webistes.
link

Ddos attacks often use "botnets" of compromised computers to flood servers with requests for information remotely. These botnets are created using trojans and other backdoor virii.
Denial of service - Wiki

This is why it is important to keep your home PC secure.

not really, you could of participated in the attack if you wanted.

its pretty simple, as shown by this article loic

you don't have to be tech savvy, hence my previous statement, this is teenagers pretending to be hackers.

it also does not mean the attacked sites are insecure, as they are secure, they weren't under real threat.

I thinking that their are several sites and companies around the globe that may not agree with your statement .

it didn't achieve anything, unless you consider shutting down a website for several hours an achievement.

mastercard and others are used to this type of thing, they will just shrug this off and carry on as usual.

4chan and anonymous, will get bored and move on.

as i said, pointless and achieves nothing

No, I couldn't have participated in this attack . Simply because I am not inclined nor interested in attacking other systems.

And if some how I came across sounding like I don't protect my home computers and think others shouldn't bother with protecting theirs . My apologies, that is NOT what I meant.
I was thinking as I was reading the artcle that if someone can get around the protection that credit card companies , banks , postal systems and social networking sites have in place enough to disrupt services and shut down web sites then if those same people wanted to get into a home PC, getting around any protection on one would be as easy as taking candy from a baby for them .

It sure has received a whole lot of media and inter net attention . If as you say it'd just some " pathetic teenagers" then about all they would be looking for by doing this would as much attention as possible , ya think ?

It's not "getting around protections" so much as basically causing a traffic jam.

they didn't get around any protections, they simply bombarded it with so much data, that it couldn't cope.

this is the equivalent to, too many people trying to go through a doorway simultaneously

and no, the people causing this attack could not get around home pc anti-virus protection easily.

the vast majority of these people aren't hackers.

no they were looking to take down these websites, and they did it.
certainly i suspect attention seeking had something to do with it, but that was hardly the motive.

im just pointing out what they did is pointless and it doesn't achieve anything.

Well they sure did a bang up job of disrupting service for awhile , and have received a butt load of attention for themselves in the process.
It seems that causing traffic jams over the web falls under the heading of "attacking" or so says the media .

Well you or the media can call it attacking or whatever, that doesn't really change the fact that there was no intrusion reported into any system.