Dutch Police Arrest 16-Year-Old for Pro-WikiLeaks Cyber Attacks

Dutch authorities announced the arrest of a 16-year-old hacker involved in the pro-WikiLeaks attacks on the websites of MasterCard and PayPal. The Dutch National Prosecutors Office reported that the teen, whose name was not disclosed, was arrested by a high-tech crime team last night.

The arrest follows a series of attacks organized by the group known as Anonymous. This group has previously targeted entities such as the Church of Scientology and the Australian government. Recently, they launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on companies distancing themselves from WikiLeaks. These attacks use thousands of computers to overwhelm a target by making simultaneous connections.

Yesterday, Visa.com was briefly taken offline, though the company assured CNET that no payments or transactions were affected. MasterCard.com was also unreachable in the morning. Additionally, the website for the Swedish prosecution agency, which is seeking the extradition of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange on sexual assault charges, was targeted.

Amazon.com was attacked today, but its massive server infrastructure, capable of bringing additional capacity online instantly, managed to fend off the assault. This defense effort is known as Operation Payback. Anonymous announced through Twitter that they had shifted their focus, stating, “We have changed our target–the Hive isn’t big enough to attack Amazon.” They then targeted PayPal’s web-based payment system.

It remains unclear how successful these efforts were. According to WatchMouse.com, a third-party monitoring service, PayPal experienced significant issues in Japan, South Africa, and Germany but not in the United States or most of Western Europe. The api.paypal.com website was inaccessible from CNET’s newsroom this afternoon.

Additional updates include:

• Attorney General Eric Holder stated that federal authorities are investigating the pro-WikiLeaks attacks. “We are aware of the incidents,” Holder said in Washington, according to Bloomberg. “We are looking into them.” There is no information on whether the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the attacks on WikiLeaks itself.
• An article on WalesOnline.co.uk reported that Bradley Manning, the alleged WikiLeaks source, has been barred from receiving visitors. His family, including his mother Susan, who suffers from health issues, was reportedly turned away despite flying from Wales to the U.S. to visit him.
• Anonymous appears to be holding a poll to determine their next target, with the U.S. Senate website (senate.gov) currently in the lead.
• Russian leader Vladimir Putin has voiced support for WikiLeaks and Assange, questioning the democratic integrity of detaining Assange.
• Edge.org has published a collection of essays exploring the balance between privacy and security, asking, “When does my right to privacy trump your need for security?”
• One reason Anonymous’ attack on Amazon.com was ineffective is that Amazon’s European datacenter, previously hosting the WikiLeaks website, represents a significant portion of Ireland’s internet-facing servers, according to Netcraft.
• The American Conservative magazine argued in favor of WikiLeaks, suggesting that conservatives should prefer whistle-blower groups like WikiLeaks over a powerful federal government.
• Amazon.co.uk previously sold a Kindle book titled “WikiLeaks documents expose US foreign policy conspiracies,” but the webpage has since been taken offline. Google’s cached version is still accessible.

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