Visa DOWN: WikiLeaks Supporters Take Down Site As 'Payback'

Story is developing: More information to come

Just hours after MasterCard's website was disabled by WikiLeaks supporters, Visa.com is now down as well.

Via its Twitter account (@Anon_Operation), Anonymous, an activist hacker group, claimed responsibility for the denial of service attack--part of "Operation Payback"--that brought down Visa.com.

"TARGET: WWW.VISA.COM :: FIRE FIRE FIRE!!! WEAPONS http://bit.ly/e6iR3X ::: SET YOUR LOIC TO irc.anonops.net ::: #DDOS #PAYBACK #WIKILEAKS," Anonymous tweeted. Shortly after it posted a tweet that read, " IT'S DOWN! KEEP FIRING!!! #DDOS #PAYBACK #WIKILEAKS."

Anonymous explains that Operation Payback is "an ongoing campaign by Anonymous against major anti-piracy & anti-freedom entities."

MasterCard and Visa are among many sites that have been targeted--and taken down--by "hacktivists." Websites belonging to Swiss bank PostFinance, Senator Joe Lieberman, PayPal, and Sarah Palin have also been disabled.

Like MasterCard, Visa also announced that it would suspend payments to WikiLeaks, a move that has rankled WikiLeaks supporters.

For more information and updates on WikiLeaks, follow our live blog here.

Comments

[Lauren Kottwitz]

07:13 PM on 12/10/2010

You can't tell me what to spend my money on, dammit! If the Chamber of Commerce gets to pour money into federal elections, I get to pour money into Wikileaks.

Take 'em all down, Anonymous.

We cannot let this stand.

[trojoe]

01:34 PM on 12/10/2010

Down with master card. Down with visa. Knowledge is freedom and power. Any company standing in the way of wikileaks is on my tihs list.

[maslin]

05:07 PM on 12/09/2010

I think the fact that there's a complete fustercluck over this is the best evidence that no one really has any idea what's really going on or who is in charge.

This whole event will blow over - but seeing the players involved is really interesting, as well as the shape of the game and its rules.

I've actually heard Colin Powell's former chief of staff publicly cast doubt on the idea that a PFC might have done all the leaking here. He said that based on his personal experience of the military and State, he can't believe the kid's supervisors weren't involved somehow.

Personally, I never reach for the bottle labeled CONSPIRACY when INCOMPETENCE will do, but everybody has to pick their own poison.

[meena140]

04:11 PM on 12/09/2010

Palin Complains Hackers Violated Free Speech, But She Scrubs Even ‘Benign’ Content From Her Own Website
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/12/09/palin-free-speech/

[GeorgieMark]

01:04 PM on 12/09/2010

I wonder why didn't the same group launch an offensive against paypal, which was the 1st corporation to stop accepting payments for Wikileaks?

[erikqj]

03:33 PM on 12/09/2010

They did.

[Dosadi]

04:36 PM on 12/09/2010

It is going on as we speak.
Try accessing api.paypal.com
You will see what their efforts are doing.

[mnunns]

01:02 PM on 12/09/2010

Hey all you wkileaks hackers, you think while you are at it you could take down all of Al Qaeda's websites?

[bring in swat]

06:54 PM on 12/09/2010

the al queda's are Bush Family friends, don't speak badly about their friends like that...they're being protected so osama and family will stay safe and cozy

[Rena Lanford]

09:27 PM on 12/09/2010

Sites like those do go down fairly often, actually. However, Anon does as Anon pleases.

[spottery2k]

01:01 PM on 12/09/2010

This fascinating political story between the giants of finance and "hacktivists" represents the defining form of political warfare for the 21st century, much as it was depicted in the Matrix trilogy a decade ago. The movie and it's sequels were of course centered on philosophical themes contrasting sensory perception and reality, but anyone with more than a high school diploma also saw the political overtones of Stanley Milgrams "Obediance to Authority" and "Agentic shift", as those of us empathizing with the hacktivists can just as easily become agents in an instant as soon as our own credit cards stop working. There is no middle ground here. There are no disinterested spectators. You are either on one side or the other.

[kyleford]

12:43 PM on 12/09/2010

Obviously this article needs to be updated. I just logged into to Visa.com and it is up and running. Same with Mastercard.com. Does anyone at HP check these things? Or are they just trying to milk a sensational headline?

[Dosadi]

04:37 PM on 12/09/2010

They have moved on to Paypal.  Log onto api.paypal.com

[arcanepsyche]

04:51 PM on 12/09/2010

VISA.com sure ain't working for me!

[jonny8440]

12:41 PM on 12/09/2010

Well there's a problem with my pay this morning. I have a prepaid VISA card. Hope it has nothing to do w/ you guys.

[jws2346]

12:25 PM on 12/09/2010

Boo, Hoo You know what they say "f**k around long enough and soon you'll be layin' around" (or something like that)

[AussieEconomist]

12:21 PM on 12/09/2010

Do the wikileaks samba.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVQ81p2yRcg

[AussieEconomist]

12:10 PM on 12/09/2010

Wikileaks is a political watershed for the information age. Let us make sure we don't fail them. This matters.

[Happyexpat]

03:26 PM on 12/09/2010

Ewwww--vege-mite. Tastes like the inside of a rusty pipe. I lived in Australia for a while in '71-72. Vege-mite is a taste best acquired five minutes out of the w.om. b I think. No offense. :))

[Js420]

09:10 PM on 12/09/2010

i tried that stuff or was it mar mite. either way, not good enough to ever waste a piece of toast on it

[AussieEconomist]

11:32 PM on 12/09/2010

This instructional film may help you understand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yA98MujNeM

[rebelle]

12:01 PM on 12/09/2010

Look, bush allowed the children of people they only thought "might" have info to be kidnapped and tortured in front of their parents to get them to talk. What parent wouldn't tell them anything they wanted to hear to stop the torture of any... child, much less their own child. Then these children were held endlessly any way. Reports of children as young as 6 were oozing out under bush, that were being charged and held as terrorist. There reports of mere babies being tortured, and since Iraq had absolutely NOTHING, Not 1 thing to do with 9-11 none of these parents or children had anything to do with any of it, their misfortune was living in a country with the second largest Oil supply in the world, and bush and chenny's greed to steal it from them. Their were reports of female children 7 to 8 years old being raped and tortured under bush. Reporters were "captured" and jailed to control the info from getting out, innocent vaudevillians were kidnapped off the streets held indefinitely, tortured and held without even a good reason and we allowed bush's administration to continue these practices unchecked while bankrupting America. Exactly how much worse could it possibly be?

[Happyexpat]

03:28 PM on 12/09/2010

Look, bush allowed the children of people they only thought "might" have info to be kidnapped and tortured in front of their parents to get them to talk, etc, etc....

This is information I haven't heard before. Where did you get that? I seriously hope you're misinformed.

[erikqj]

03:41 PM on 12/09/2010

Her source is presumably Wikileaks.

The Iraqi police were using such methods against captives handed to them by US troops, something the US military, and presumably the Bush administration, was aware of. Thus, Bush allowed this to happen, and to some extent aided in it.

[persianadvocate]

12:00 PM on 12/09/2010

Freedom of speech? Priceless.

For everything else, there's Mastercard (tm)

[AussieEconomist]

12:06 PM on 12/09/2010

I've cancelled my mastercard. Won't be renewing it.

[noob1]

12:00 PM on 12/09/2010

Perhaps they should use their mastercard to buy some better network gear, eh?