BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:
It doesn't seem quite real, but the world is in the midst of a kind of electronic war. The mysterious man who runs
WikiLeaks
and keeps his secrets in a military bunker is tonight in a
London
jail. And today, forces loyal to him took down the
Web sites
of
MasterCard
and
Visa
, and there's no real telling where this ends. Every day we learn more previously confidential
state secrets
on the
Web
for everybody to see. Every day there's new diplomatic damage done. And now there's this counterattack going on, hitting big financial interests in the US, the same companies behind the credit cards carried every day by millions of Americans. Our own
Peter Alexander
remains on this story. He starts us off tonight from our
London bureau
.
Peter
, good evening.
PETER ALEXANDER reporting:
Brian
, good evening to you. Tonight
MasterCard
's
Web site
is back in service, and
Visa
says it's working to restore its site. But for a time today both
Web sites
were off line, unavailable to users. The companies insist people's ability to use their cards securely was never affected. Still, this is a new offensive on what's become a virtual battlefield. Under attack,
Web sites
of some of the most familiar corporate names in the world,
MasterCard
and
Visa
, as well as
PayPal
and this
Swiss bank
that have all recently pulled the plug on
WikiLeaks
.
Mr. BOB SULLIVAN (Msnbc.com Technology Correspondent):
This clearly is a
David vs. Goliath
battle, and technology allows people to amass enough power that they really can go up against a major corporation.
ALEXANDER:
Who's to blame? They're online activists rushing to
WikiLeaks
' defense. This evening one hacker group calling itself
Anonymous
shut down
Visa
's
Web site
, tweeting, "
Fire
, fire, fire, weapons." They call it
Operation Payback
. A
PayPal
executive today explained that his company suspended
WikiLeaks
' account after the
State Department
sent a letter declaring the
Web site
's activities illegal. Also affected, the
Web site
for the Swedish prosecutor's office that issued
Julian Assange
's arrest warrant.
Ms. KAREN ROSANDER (Swedish Prosecutor's Office):
Last night it suddenly went down.
ALEXANDER:
And the lawyer for the two women accusing
Assange
of sexual misconduct.
Mr. SULLIVAN:
If these hackers are clever, they can't be found.
ALEXANDER:
Assange
's lawyer insists the
WikiLeaks
founder behind bars did not orchestrate today's attacks.
Ms. JENNIFER ROBINSON (Assange's Attorney):
Mr.
Assange
doesn't have contact with
WikiLeaks
employees at all, let alone the
outside world
.
ALEXANDER:
WikiLeaks
tweeted, "We will not be gagged." And their release of sensitive diplomatic cables continues. The latest embarrassing documents published in a British newspaper reveal the details of what a US diplomat described as wild sex and drug parties hosted by the
Saudi royal family
. Despite international efforts to choke off funds to
WikiLeaks
, the controversial site is mushrooming, with hundreds of identical
mirror sites
keeping them viable on line. A fight that started over national security secrets is now spreading, threatening to affect anyone who goes online. And tonight hackers are warning that
Twitter
, the very social media outlet they often use to post their threats, is now itself a target,
Brian
, because the hackers claim
Twitter
is censoring their
online community
of supporters.
WILLIAMS:
It goes on.
Peter Alexander
starting us off from
London
(Mike Keefe / The Denver Post, Politicalcartoons.com) Back to slideshow navigation
(Olle Johansson / Sweden, Politicalcartoons.com) Back to slideshow navigation
(John Darkow / The Columbia Daily Tribune, Politicalcartoons.com) Back to slideshow navigation
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