Now, Internet ‘hacktivists’ target Amazon for refusing trade with WikiLeaks

LONDON - WikiLeaks supporters have vowed to wreak havoc on companies that are deemed as enemies of the whistleblowing website, and UK’s biggest online retailer Amazon has been cited as the next target.

Operation Payback, the banner used by hackers who have vowed to take revenge on companies refusing to trade with WikiLeaks, could cost Amazon millions in the run-up to Christmas if it is successful with its plan.

A self-appointed spokesman for Operation Payback, who gave his name as ‘Cold Blood’, said successful attacks already carried out on payment companies MasterCard, Visa and Paypal would also include Amazon.

It is being targeted because it stopped hosting WikiLeaks - giving it space on its computer servers.

“We are trying to keep the Internet free for everyone, but in recent months and years we’ve seen governments and the EU trying to creep in and limit the freedom of the Internet,” the Daily Mail quoted the 22-year-old software engineer, as telling the BBC.

“Our main targets are Amazon, MasterCard and PayPal (the online payment service). We feel that they have bowed to government pressure.

“They say Wikileaks broke their terms and conditions but they accept payments from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan,” he stated.

Other members of Anonymous later posted messages dissociating the group from Cold Blood and said he would no longer be giving interviews.

An Internet security expert predicted that Amazon, which is geared to deal with a much greater number of visitors to its website than MasterCard and Visa, would be much harder to disrupt.

“Amazon has a huge infrastructure. It’s a very technically sophisticated company,” Mike Prettejohn, a director of the security firm Netcraft, which is monitoring the attacks, said. (ANI)