Pro-WikiLeaks Hackers Attack Swedish Gov't Site

The latest casualty of the cyberwar being waged on behalf of WikiLeaks is the Swedish government's website.

Anonymous hackers, engaged in a online campaign dubbed "Operation Payback," brought down the site for several hours overnight and threatened that more attacks were coming, reports UK daily The Telegraph.

The attack follows similar measures taken against MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, all of which stopped processing WikiLeaks payments after the site angered the U.S. government by leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables.

The website of Sarah Palin, a vocal critic of WikiLeaks and its imprisoned founder Julian Assange, was also brought down by "hacktivists."

CBSNews.com Special Report: WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks CableGate Update Blog

Sweden is likely a target for pursuing a rape case against the Australian-born Assange, which led to his arrest in Britain earlier this week, where he is being held without bail.

The attacks, known as DDoS, or distributed denial of service, flood the target websites with unwanted traffic, forcing it to crash.

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Sarah Palin: WikiLeaks Supporters Hacked Me