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It was just last week that our own Jared Wade wrote a post about how WikiLeaks’ next target may not be military or government affiliated at all; it could be your company.
Early next year, Julian Assange says, a major American bank will suddenly find itself turned inside out. Tens of thousands of its internal documents will be exposed on Wikileaks.org with no polite requests for executives’ response or other forewarnings. The data dump will lay bare the finance firm’s secrets on the Web for every customer, every competitor, every regulator to examine and pass judgment on.
The website that relies on truth in everything has gained a massive following of fanatic supporters. So fanatic, it seems, that they have retaliated against those who have recently wronged WikiLeaks or its founder, Julian Assange. Here’s a list of those companies or individuals who have fallen victim to cyberattacks launched by WikiLeaks supporters:
- Mastercard.com — WikiLeaks relies on donations to keep running and it was Mastercard who processed such donations. Well, with the media firestorm around the website and Assange lately, the card company severed ties with the site.
- Amazon.com — The giant online retailer decided to revoke server space it had once granted to WikiLeaks.
- PayPal — The online payment service chose to cut off its commercial cooperation with WikiLeaks.
Other targets include the lawyer representing two women who have accused Assange of sexual abuse and PostFinance, Assange’s bank, which closed his account. The attacks have been organized and launch by a group of hackers called Anonymous. One of the members granted an interview to the New York Times.
That activist, Gregg Housh, said in a telephone interview that 1,500 activists were on online forums and chatrooms including Anonops.net, mounting mass and repeated “denial of service” attacks on sites that have moved against Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks in recent days. The hacker army has rallied around the theory that all the actions against the organization and against Mr. Assange, including the rape accusations, are politically motivated efforts to silence those challenging authority. “To all of us,” Mr. Housh said, “there is no distinction. He is a political prisoner and the two things are completely entwined.”
The group has been successful; the websites for Mastercard, PayPal and PostFinance were all experiencing difficulties. Even more frightening, Anonymous claims to be planning further attacks on company websites. So it is true then, WikiLeaks’ next target, either directly or indirectly, could be your company.
Risk Management Magazine and Risk Management Monitor. Copyright 2012 Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. All rights reserved.
