A Twitter user calling himself “Ibom Hacktivist” was first to announce the attack and appeared to take credit.
He said he was a member of Anonymous, the politically-motivated hacking collective, and indicated that MasterCard was targeted because of its withdrawal of financial services to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
“MasterCard.com DOWN!!!, thats what you get when you mess with @wikileaks @Anon_Central and the enter community of lulz loving individuals,” he said.
"Lulz" is online slang for "laughs".
MasterCard confirmed its website was offline and said it was investigating.
It is not the first time the firm's online presence has suffered as a result of its action against WikiLeaks.
In December, it was hit by “Operation Payback”, a series of attacks launched by Anonymous that also targeted Visa, PayPal and Amazon. The collective, which was founded to protest against threats to free speech online, wanted revenge after the firms withdrew services from WikiLeaks in the midst of its release of classified US diplomatic cables.
On its Twitter account, WikiLeaks highlighted the latest attack.
“Hactivists take down MasterCard in protest over the continuing illegal WikiLeaks fiscal embargo,” it said.
“The unlawful banking blockade against WikiLeaks in 6th month: The culprits: VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Bank of America, Western Union.”
It was not immediately certain how MasterCard’s website was forced offline, but in previous attacks, Anonymous has used Denial of Service (DoS) techniques, which aim to overload servers with traffic and make websites inaccessible.
Attackers typically use a botnet – a network of compromised computers they remotely control – to generate the necessary volume of traffic. Unlike hacking, DoS does not normally involve gaining access to private computer files. In Britain, launching a DoS attack carries a jail sentence of up to 10 years.
He said he was a member of Anonymous, the politically-motivated hacking collective, and indicated that MasterCard was targeted because of its withdrawal of financial services to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
“MasterCard.com DOWN!!!, thats what you get when you mess with @wikileaks @Anon_Central and the enter community of lulz loving individuals,” he said.
"Lulz" is online slang for "laughs".
MasterCard confirmed its website was offline and said it was investigating.
It is not the first time the firm's online presence has suffered as a result of its action against WikiLeaks.
In December, it was hit by “Operation Payback”, a series of attacks launched by Anonymous that also targeted Visa, PayPal and Amazon. The collective, which was founded to protest against threats to free speech online, wanted revenge after the firms withdrew services from WikiLeaks in the midst of its release of classified US diplomatic cables.
On its Twitter account, WikiLeaks highlighted the latest attack.
“The unlawful banking blockade against WikiLeaks in 6th month: The culprits: VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Bank of America, Western Union.”
It was not immediately certain how MasterCard’s website was forced offline, but in previous attacks, Anonymous has used Denial of Service (DoS) techniques, which aim to overload servers with traffic and make websites inaccessible.
Attackers typically use a botnet – a network of compromised computers they remotely control – to generate the necessary volume of traffic. Unlike hacking, DoS does not normally involve gaining access to private computer files. In Britain, launching a DoS attack carries a jail sentence of up to 10 years.
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