WikiLeaks Website Hit by Cyber Attack
Posted By CheapHostingChoice
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — WikiLeaks said its website (www.wikileaks.org) was attacked late Tuesday evening in the midst of the whistleblower website releasing thousands of unpublished US diplomatic cables.
The organization announced via its Twitter feed that “WikiLeaks.org is presently under attack,” later calling the issue a “cyber attack”.
Later, the website confirmed that its website was back up but some visitors were still experiencing issues with accessing the site.
Steffen Kraft, editor of German newspaper Der Freitag, said he found a “password protected csv file” that contained a 1.73GB batch of diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks.
He claimed that the file’s password was easy to find, and that the cables contained documents that WikiLeaks had previously published, only this copy of the documents were completely unedited and included “named or otherwise identifiable ‘informers’ and ‘suspected intelligence agents’ from Israel, Jordan, Iran, and Afghanistan”.
In the past, WikiLeaks has normally edited documents before releasing them to the public, removing the names of any informants or sources that are considered sensitive.
As a result of the information’s sensitive matter, Der Freitag said he decided not to publish the documents. And although he has not yet proved that the cables do, in fact, exist, another German newspaper Der Spiegel, recently confirmed that the cables are indeed legitimate.
It is still unclear as to who is reponsible for the attack, but Kraft hinted that former WikiLeak spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg could be behind it.
Last week, Domscheit-Berg said he destroyed more than 3,500 unleaked cables including a document containing the Bank of America’s US no-fly list and information, in an effort to ensure the safety of sources for whom WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange could not guarantee safety.
Other suspects include employees at WikiLeaks publishing partners the Guardian, the New York Times, and El Pais.
© 2011, CheapHostingChoice. If You Wish To Publish/Reprint The Post Written By CheapHostingChoice, You Must: Provide The Post URL; And Keep All Links Active.
Related posts:
- WikiLeaks Loses PayPal Swedish Web Hosts Servers may be Under Attack
- Second DDoS Attack on 4chan Leads to Downtime
- Russian Criminals May Be Hiding Behind Pro-WikiLeaks Attacks
About The Author
Comments
Post a Comment