HackingWikiLeaks hit by cyberattack

On Tuesday night, the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks suffered from a cyberattack that crashed its homepage.

In an announcement on its Twitter feed, the website confirmed the attacks and directed users to a mirror site where they could still access the group’s database of leaked cables.

“WikiLeaks.org is presently under attack. You can still search US cables here,” the organization tweeted.

In response to the attacks, the organization encouraged supporters to make donations. In a separate tweet, WikiLeaks, said, “Want to really help WikiLeaks fend off attacks? Send us money to pay the bills. Many people x $5 = strength. Wikileaks.lu/support.html.”

The attack on WikiLeaks comes shortly after the group released nearly 134,000 additional State Department cables. The move is considered unusual as it is far greater number of cables than the organization has leaked before.

The latest release has generated sharp criticism from U.S. officials as the newly published cables include the names of individuals who had asked for protection and requested that their identities be kept secret.

State Department officials and human rights activists are concerned that the protected sources, which include activists, journalists, and academics in authoritarian countries, could be fired, face prosecution, or become the victim of violent reprisal.

The organization maintains that all the material it released was “unclassified and previously released by mainstream media.”

Steven Aftergood, an expert on government secrecy with the Federation of American Scientists, said that given the large number of cables released it is unlikely that all of the information that might endanger diplomatic sources had been removed.

“If these cables have not been carefully reviewed, it’s likely to be problematic for any number of people named in the cables,” Aftergood said.