WikiLeaks Taken Down by Immense DoS (Denial of Service) Attack

WikiLeaks, a whistleblower site known for their shrewd and pungent subject matters, remains down under a massive DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. WikiLeaks has been a news organization figure on the Internet known for posting quite controversial subject matters literally gaining worldwide attention from various sources, including authorities in different corners of the world. The recent string of WikiLeaks attacks comes about just as they start publishing information related to Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence firm that the 'Anonymous' touted hacker-group infiltrated last year to steal about five million emails.

If you are at-all familiar with WikiLeaks, you may realize that they are also known for publishing leaked information. Sometimes this 'leaked' information is the subject matter of previously hacked data. The most recent published data to show up on WikiLeaks contained batches of emails showing Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, psychological methods and payment-laundering techniques. No doubt that such pertinent information would uprise some tension among Stratfor.

The current DDoS attack on the WikiLeaks, although proven to be a unique attack, had WikiLeaks speculating that the attacks could be related to the Olympics or the ongoing Syria, Stratfor releases. The unique part about the DDoS attack on WikiLeaks, is that it is using a monumental amount of bandwidth and cannot be filtered without specialized hardware, as WikiLeaks tweeted on Friday. They also added, whoever is running the DDoS attack controls thousands of machines or may be able to simulate such an amount.

AntiLeaks, an anonymous group hell-bent on attacking WikiLeaks, explained in their latest tweet (Figure 1. below) that they "are behind the attacks on WikiLeaks and its supporters." AntiLeaks also stated that they will be "issuing a statement on the matter shortly."

Figure 1. AntiLeaks Tweet claiming responsibility for WikiLeaks Takedown with DDoS Attack.

WikiLeaks has made a few attempts to surmount the attack by creating mirror sites with not much success. They have even attempted to move its service to another host, CloudFlare. CloudFlare is known for specializing in DDoS protection and website acceleration. However, WikiLeaks was turned away by the California-based start-up (CloudFlare), who once called the infamous LulzSec hacker group 'customers' during a three week period when they were ramping up efforts to breach large company sites belonging to PBS and Sony. LulzSec was essentially allowed to be a customer because they never violated CloudFlare's terms of service.

CloudFlare has been under questioning by various sources when asked about denying WikiLeaks service. CloudFlare's co-founder, Matthew Prince, simply responded "We restrict all high-traffic sites from the automatic sign-up process," he told SCMagazine.com in an email. "The purpose for this is to make sure a big site signing up has a great experience and that we're prepared so they don't overwhelm our network. You'd see the exact same error for the same reason if you tried to sign up Google.com. The list of high-traffic sites is pulled automatically -- it wasn't purposefully directed at WikiLeaks.”

In trying to understand the nature of the attack, WikiLeaks has been left out in the cold to suffer once again. WikiLeaks is not a stranger to running into trouble with U.S.-based companies. WikiLeaks was not so much of an ally to the U.S. starting in 2010 because of the publishing of secrete diplomatic information, ties with a number of brands, such as PayPal, MasterCard and Amazon were broke.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks leader, remains at the Ecuador's London embassy where he is seeking asylum to the South American nation. Then, he would attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden where he could face alleged sexual offenses. The attacks are claimed by the AntiLeaks group specifically against Assange, to hopefully block his asylum.