Operation Payback is targeting yet another WikiLeaks opponent. This time, it hit Visa.com with a denial of service attack after the credit card company's European division stopped processing WikiLeaks donations.
Visa confirmed the outage, but said customer data was not at risk. Chatter on the 4chan.org bulletin board a site frequented by Anonymous posters, suggested that PayPal might be the next target, with its payment gateways, or the New York Stock Exchange, or Twitter, which suspended the account used for the Anonymous operations.
"Visa's processing network, which handles cardholder transactions, is functioning normally and cardholders can continue to use their cards as they routinely would," Visa Inc. said in a statement. "Account data is not at risk. Separately, Visa's corporate website - Visa.com - is currently experiencing heavier than normal traffic. The company is taking steps to restore the site to full operations within the next few hours."
As of 5:45pm Eastern time, Visa.com had intermittent connectivity.
Operation Payback, operated by the clandestine group known as "Anonymous," which reportedly includes members of the "/b/" bulletin board 4chan.org, has launched cyber attacks against companies that have yanked their support for WikiLeaks. It has used its Twitter feed as a forum to claim responsibility for the attacks as well.
On Wednesday afternoon, however, the Twitter account belonging to the group, @Anon_Operation, was suspended.
"http://isitup.org/www.visa.com It's down! Keep Firing!!! #DDoS #Payback #WIkiLeaks" said a tweet from @Anon_Operation.
Wednesday was a busy day for Operation Payback, which also took down Mastercard's site this morning.
"We're glad to tell you that http://www.mastercard.com/ is down and it's confirmed," @Anon_Operation tweeted.
PayPal was also targeted after it restricted the WikiLeaks account, but DDoS attempts have been unsuccessful thus far.
"We can confirm that there have been attempted DDoS attack on paypal.com. These attacks have at times slowed the Web site itself down, but have not significantly impacted payments," PayPal said in a statement. "The PayPal.com site is fully operational."
The Internet war that has resulted in the aftermath of WikiLeaks release of nearly 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables seems to be like a giant game of online ping pong. After attacks on the two credit card companies Wednesday, Operation Payback has experienced some backlash. The group's site is currently down and Facebook has banned the Operation Payback page.
"We take our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities very seriously and react quickly to reports of inappropriate content and behavior," Facebook said in a statement. "We also take action on content that we find or that's reported to us that promotes unlawful activity. The goal of these policies is to strike a very delicate balance between giving people the freedom to express their opinions and viewpoints even those that may be controversial to some and maintaining a safe and trusted environment."
Earlier today, Facebook said it had no reason to remove the page for WikiLeaks, however.
Operation Payback has a history of targeting anti-piracy organizations. Past DDoS victims have included such groups as the Recording Industry Association of America, the U.S. Copyright Office, and the Motion Picture Association of America.
Additional reporting by Mark Hachman.
Editors Note: This story was updated at 3:42 PM PT with additional details, including the closure of the Anonymous Twitter account.