WikiLeaks is back online Tuesday morning following more than a week's worth of massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on its servers.
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A hacker group calling itself "AntiLeaks" took credit for the attacks against WikiLeaks on Twitter, claiming it targeted the website because of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's ongoing efforts to seek political asylum in Ecuador.
“We are not doing this to call attention to ourselves," @antileaks said in an extended tweet.
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"We are young adults, citizens of the United States of America and are deeply concerned about the recent developments with Julian Assange and his attempt at aslyum [sic] in Ecuador. Assange is the head of a new breed of terrorist. We are doing this as a protest against his attempt to escape justice into Ecuador. This would be a catalyst for many more like him to rise up in his place. We will not stop and they will not stop us.”
DDoS attacks work by targeting heavy amounts of bogus traffic at a website's host server in hopes of overloading it and forcing it offline. They're among the most common form of cyberattacks.
AntiLeaks claimed it had no relationship to the United States or other governments considered enemies of WikiLeaks. However, that hasn't stopped ongoing speculation that the attack was a response to WikiLeaks' posting of documents related to TrapWire, a counterterrorism surveillance system that collects and analyzes footage from security cameras and license plate readers.
Details about TrapWire were discovered in emails from security intelligence firm Stratfor acquired by Anonymous and leaked by WikiLeaks earlier this year. Some observers immediately labeled it a secret digital surveillance effort that's in use around the world, though recent reports have cast doubt on several of the more audacious claims made about the system.
WikiLeaks' documents regarding TrapWire are now back online.
Images courtesy of Flickr, acidpolly
This story originally published on Mashable here.