14 DAY TRIAL // MasterCard's website was the target of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that was carried out earlier today by a hacktivist associated with the AntiSec movement.
"MasterCard.com DOWN!!!, thats what you get when you mess with @wikileaks @Anon_Central and the enter community of lulz loving individuals :D," the attacker, who uses the moniker Ibom Hacktivist, said on Twitter.
According to later tweets the website was down for several hours. "Welcome to MasterCard Worldwide Thanks To Anonymous We Are Over 3 Hours Late! :D #AntiSec #lulz," the hacktivist wrote.
#AntiSec is a reference to Operation Anti-Security, a campaign launched by hacking outfit LulzSec before it disbanded this past weekend.
The campaign calls for all hackers to attack websites belonging to governments and affiliated organizations as a sign of protest to their increasing pressure to control the Internet.
The notorious hacktivist collective Anonymous has vowed to carry on the campaign for LulzSec and other hackers are also pitching in.
Yesterday, one group defaced the official website of the Tunisian government, while today someone leaked a large database stolen from the Zimbabwean government.
MasterCard has been attacked by Anonymous supporters before, following its decision to block credit card transactions destined to WikiLeaks.
Five people, two of which minors, were detained in the UK over the attacks that also targeted VISA, PayPal, Moneybookers, PostFinance, and other organizations. A 16-year-old was arrested in the Netherlands for involvement in the same attacks.
LulzSec's call for cyber attacks is dangerous because it encourages minors and teenagers to participate in actions with consequences they might not fully realize.
Anonymous' depiction of DDoS as a method of protest is similarly wrong. Denial of service attacks are criminal actions that are punished with imprisonment in many countries.