WikiLeaks moves hosting base after attack puts it offline
The site appeared to have responded by switching its main hosting base from Sweden to the US, making it available again.
The site, which distributed masses of US diplomatic documents on Sunday, said that it was under a “distributed denial of service attack,” a method commonly used by hackers to slow down or bring down sites.
The site, which is devoted to releasing anonymously submitted documents, also came under attack on Sunday, but yesterday’s appeared to be more powerful.
In a typical denial-of-service attack, remote computers commandeered by rogue programs bombard a website with so many data packets that it becomes overwhelmed and unavailable to visitors. Pinpointing the culprits is difficult.
WikiLeaks said the malicious traffic was coming in at 10 gigabits per second, which would make it a relatively large effort.
Sunday’s attack did not stop the publication of stories based on messages leaked from the US State Department in several major newspapers. WikiLeaks had given the media outlets prior access to the diplomatic cables to publish in conjunction with their Sunday release on its site.
Meanwhile, Ecuador appears to be modifying its offer of unconditional residency to the embattled founder of the online whistle-blower WikiLeaks.
Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said in a TV interview yesterday that the possibility “will have to be studied from the legal and diplomatic perspective”.
His deputy Kintto Lucas said on Monday that Ecuador was open to giving Julian Assange residence.
The Australian has incensed Washington and many other governments by releasing hundreds of sensitive diplomatic cables. He had sought residency in Sweden. But a court there has ordered him detained for questioning on sexual assault allegations. Assange denies the allegations.
In Britain, the Duke of York was warned to steer clear of government policy after criticising the Serious Fraud Office investigation into BAE Systems’ Al-Yamamah arms deal.
Prince Andrew came under fire after a leaked document showed he criticised France and America and condemned “idiotic” anti-corruption investigators in his role as British trade ambassador.
US ambassador Tatiana Gfoeller described Andrew boasting “cockily” about British influence during an expletive-laden discussion with business leaders in Kyrgyzstan in 2008.
Her report of the meeting came in a confidential diplomatic cable contained in a tranche of more than 250,000 secret documents obtained by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
Business Secretary Vince Cable stressed that anti-corruption policy had nothing to do with Andrew and that it would be “helpful” if he kept his counsel on Government matters.
“He is not a government appointee. He voluntarily goes around the world trying to help British companies promote exports and jobs in Britain,” Mr Cable told Sky News.
“I value that. I’ve seen him in action and he does a very good job.
“I would just make it absolutely clear that we regard bribery overseas as illegal and unacceptable. That is not a matter for Prince Andrew, that’s a matter for the government.”
In “an astonishing display of candour”, the British businessmen alleged that nothing got done in Kyrgyzstan unless the son of the then president got a cut, she said.
“At this point, the Duke of York laughed uproariously, saying that ‘all of this sounds exactly like France’,” wrote Ms Gfoeller.
Buckingham Palace and Downing Street said they would not comment on leaked documents as campaigners called for Andrew to quit his role with UK Trade and Investment.
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