WikiLeaks and Julian Assange are the main reasons behind the attacks

Aug 17, 2012 11:04 GMT  ·  By

After they have taken down WikiLeaks for a fairly long period of time by launching a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack against it, hackers from AntiLeaks have turned their attention to two other websites: news site RT.com, and live video streaming service Bambuser.

“We can confirm a DDoS attack this morning, causing service issues. Regret any inconvenience,” Bambuser representatives wrote on Twitter.

A couple of hours ago, RT.com posted a similar message on Twitter: BREAKING: RT.com is under DDoS attack, hosting provider confirms. More details as we get it.

Bambuser’s owners have told ZDNet that they’re often targeted because their services are utilized by many activists from Syria, Russia, and even the Occupy movement.

While this isn’t the first attack they’re experiencing, this particular campaign is most likely connected to the fact that citizen journalist James Albury has been using the service to broadcast from the embassy of Ecuador in London where the controversial Julian Assange has been seeking asylum.

“Mysteriously the website bambuser.com went down as soon as I learned it was live streaming the Ecuador Embassy #Wikileaks #Antileaks,” one of the hackers said.

A few hours ago, they added, “As many have speculated and most of you already know, we were behind the DDoS attack on #bambuser.”

As far as RT is concerned, they accuse the news website of being a “government funded and controlled propaganda machine,” along with WikiLeaks Central and Pacific Justice.

Currently, Bambuser is working properly, but RT.com is still under siege. Such attacks are bound to intensify, now that the asylum request of the WikiLeaks founder has been approved.

In the meantime, a Facebook page that carries that hackers’ name indicates that there may be a conflict between AntiLeaks and the United States of Anonymous. The latter took over AntiLeaks’ Facebook page after their own page was temporarily downed by AntiLeaks.

On the other hand, AntiLeaks representatives claim that they only communicate via email and Twitter, naming the Facebook page as being a fake.