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MasterCard website down; cyberattack blamed

08 December 2010 22:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. MasterCard’s corporate website was inaccessible because of an apparent cyberattack Wednesday, but the credit card company said that its cards are still functioning, APA reports quoting CNN.
A tweet on Twitter indicated a possible tie to a recent MasterCard move against WikiLeaks, the website that recently released thousands of secret U.S. State Department documents, but that could not be confirmed.
"The issue appears to be the result of a concentrated effort to flood our corporate website with traffic and slow access," said company spokesman James Issokson, in a prepared statement. "We are working to restore normal service levels."
Issokson said the hack attack does not affect the use of credit cards or financial security.
Supporters of WikiLeaks were claiming to have launched the cyberattack in retaliation for MasterCard’s (MA, Fortune 500) refusal to accept credit cards on the WikiLeaks site.
Issokson wouldn’t comment on allegations of who was behind the attack. But on Tuesday, MasterCard said it was "working to suspend the acceptance of MasterCard cards on WikiLeaks."
On Twitter, a post from a handle called @Anon_Operation took responsibility for the attacks, tweeting about its so-called Operation Payback: "We are glad to tell you that [Mastercard.com] is down and it’s confirmed. Operation: Payback (is a bitch!)"
There was no immediate confirmation that whoever was behind the handle was responsible for the attack.
The website for PayPal was also the subject of an "attempted DDoS [denial-of-service] attack" in recent days, though the site remained operational, according to PayPal spokeswoman Charlotte Hill.
"These attacks have at times slowed the website itself down, but have not significantly impacted payments," she said.
Hill confirmed that this happened after PayPal denied service to WikiLeaks.
PostFinance, a Swiss bank, also had problems with its website on Tuesday, when it announced that the site was "overloaded owing to a multitude of online enquiries."
This happened the day after PostFinance announced that it closed the account of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for having "provided false information regarding his place of residence when opening the account."
The PostFinance website was back up Wednesday.
Credit.com reported, on its blog, that credit card companies and financial firms were making it difficult for supporters to funnel cash to WikiLeaks.
"With such major players cutting off its access to funds, the financial pressure on WikiLeaks appears to be mounting," wrote Credit.com on its blog. "The site can accept donations through DataCell, a Swiss credit card company, and through bank transfers to accounts in Germany and Iceland, though the decision by Visa and MasterCard to block transfers may make it difficult for those channels to remain open."
DataCell reported Wednesday that MasterCard and Visa payments were being rejected in its "donation system" through the WikiLeaks website. DataCell said it was taking "immediate legal actions to make donations possible again."
"The suspension of payments towards WikiLeaks is a violation of the agreements with their customers," said DataCell, in its news release. "This does clearly create massive financial losses to WikiLeaks which seems to be the only purpose of this suspension."