WikiLeaks backers plan Amazon.com attack

Computer hackers who support WikiLeaks released a do-it-yourself hacking tool online Thursday so other people can replicate the attacks they say took down the websites of MasterCard and Visa.
They say Amazon.com is the target, with the attack due to start at about 11 a.m. ET. So far, the site appears to be operating normally.
"Anonymous Operations" released the tool on Twitter and called for followers to translate it into other languages.
Hackers have been targeting websites of organizations they see as hostile to WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange, who was arrested in London this week on allegations unconnected to the website's publication of secret documents.
Anonymous Operations members told CNN Thursday their goal was "freedom of information. Any and all information."
They were originally focused on piracy, but shifted their attention to WikiLeaks because it was "obvious we had to help."

"While their methods may be controversial, they do demand transparency, which is something we definitely support," they said, adding that once they feel they have made their point about WikiLeaks, they will go back to fighting for "unlimited freedom of expression."
They spoke to CNN Correspondent Atika Shubert in an online chat after being contacted through Twitter.
The hackers have been attacking sites with a relatively simple tool called a low orbit ion cannon (LOIC).
Users who put it on their computer are allowing Anonymous Operations to use the machine to launch attacks on a chosen target, computer security expert Mikko Hypponen told CNN.
He hasn't seen any obvious backdoors in the code that would allow Anonymous Operations to use people's computers for other purposes, he said.
Because people cut and paste the code off a website, rather than downloading it, there's no way to tell how many people have put the tool on their computers.
The website of the lawyer representing the women who accuse Assange of sex attacks in Sweden went down on Thursday, said the office of the lawyer, Claes Borgstrom.
The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported that government's website also went down for a few hours, but the government refused to comment, saying it did not discuss security matters.
And a website has been set up in the name of Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask -- but it automatically redirects users to WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks founder Assange is being held in a London jail as the British courts decide whether to extradite him to Sweden to face questioning. He has not been charged with a crime.

Source: CNN