WASHINGTON - THE website of the Swedish prosecutor's office pursuing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange came under cyber attack on Tuesday in the latest salvo in a campaign by online supporters who have also struck PayPal and the Swiss Post Office bank.
PandaLabs, the malware detection laboratory for computer security firm Panda Security, said the prosecutor's website, aklagare.se, was brought down by members of the loose 'cyber hacktivist' group called 'Anonymous.'
The attack on the Swedish prosecutor's website came as Assange, whose release of secret US diplomatic cables has sparked an international furore, was refused bail by a British judge over allegations of sex crimes in Sweden.
Sean-Paul Correll, a threat researcher at PandaLabs, said Anonymous had dubbed the attacks on the websites of the Swedish prosecutor's office, PayPal and the Swiss Post Office bank as 'Operation Avenge Assange.'
He said they were part of a battle being waged online between supporters and opponents of WikiLeaks, whose website has come under repeated cyber attack itself and has seen US companies gradually withdrawing their support.
'We have two sides of this attack spectrum,' the PandaLabs researcher told AFP in a telephone interview. 'We have the Anonymous guys on one side fighting for freedom of information and freedom of press,' Mr Correll said. 'And we have other people who consider themselves patriots who are trying to defend the greater interests of the United States.' -- AFP
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