Between the Lines
Larry Dignan, Sam Diaz, Andrew NuscaMastercard: We're recovering from Wikileaks related attacks
By Larry Dignan | December 8, 2010, 12:12pm PST
Summary
Mastercard said Thursday that it is recovering from a series of attacks related to the Wikileaks flap. The credit card company is under fire from hackers.
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Larry Dignan
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Larry Dignan
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
Sam Diaz
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Sam Diaz
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. He has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years. He's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a graduate of California State University, Fresno.
Andrew Nusca
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Andrew Nusca
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Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.
He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancee and his cat, Spats.
Mastercard said Thursday that it is recovering from a series of attacks related to the Wikileaks flap.
In a statement, Mastercard said:
MasterCard has made significant progress in restoring full-service to its corporate website. Our core processing capabilities have not been compromised and cardholder account data has not been placed at risk. While we have seen limited interruption in some web-based services, cardholders can continue to use their cards for secure transactions globally.
Hackers have taken aim at Mastercard in an effort dubbed “Operation Payback.” These attacks are aimed at any company that hampered the Wikileaks effort. Mastercard stopped processing donations for WikiLeaks.
Amazon, who nixed Wikileaks’ hosting, and PayPal are also on the hit list.
These companies are now deemed enemies of Wikileaks leader Julian Assange, who is being held in the U.K. on accusations of sex offensives.
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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.
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Larry Dignan
Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn̢۪t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.
Biography
Larry Dignan
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
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such an honorable group of people
"These companies are now deemed enemies of Wikileaks leader Julian Assange"So either you support those you don't want to or we'll take you down. so much for having the "freedom to chose who you want to deal with"
I'm sure the HollyWoodDogs and economisters will tell us how this is so much better then how the US gov does it.
RE: Mastercard: We're recovering from Wikileaks related attacks
@cyberspammer2
Is it who they wish to deal with or goverment pressure pushing them in that direction.
PayPal already let out they cut off WikiLeaks due to goverment pressure.... though what type keeps getting spun out to Neptune and back.....zenwalker(Edited: 12/08/2010 03:10 PM)Mastercard and Freedom
After all whats the point of freedom and responsibility and opportunity if you are denied such things only to have the world figured out and sold to you in convenient episodes that so often serve to conveniently serve the indoctrinated/vested power bases and their infomercial packages?After all is it really all about freedom as Mastercard so often boasts in its commercials? I wonder...
http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/12/media-transparency-mastercard-and-payback/
RE: Mastercard: We're recovering from Wikileaks related attacks
It's shocking that companies like Amazon, Mastercard, VISA and Paypal are bowing to US govt pressure to completely abandon due-process, free speech and free press. Those companies should all be prosecuted by any means possible for this insult to the values that the US was founded on
RE: Mastercard: We're recovering from Wikileaks related attacks
@GLComputing What? Why should these companies be prosecuted exactly? When you use the services that these companies provide, you agree by their terms of service. Free speech, due process and free press are not their concern. Take them to court, yes, but I doubt you would win because these companies are merely abiding by the terms of service.RE: Mastercard: We're recovering from Wikileaks related attacks
@bobabob
It's not tos they are dealing with, it is goverment pressure.
PayPal already let that cat out....
Now we have the Visa doantion issue as a result...What scares companies is when the government rolls out the "terrorist" word as it gives them carte blanche to rummage and rampage - just the supposed threat is scary.
zenwalker12/08/2010 03:13 PMRE: Mastercard: We're recovering from Wikileaks related attacks
This article is incredibly misleading.
This is not Assange's army, and they were NOT organized by Wikileaks. This is anon. They take up random causes like this all the time. There's no wikileaks organized hit list or anything of the like, just a bunch of bored kids with a cause. They've messed with everyone from Justin Bieber to Scientology. They're (generally) staunchly anti-censorship, so their ideals happen to line up here. But they are NOT directly related to wikileaks.Larry Dignan, You should be ashamed. You have absolutely done next to zero background research here.
RE: Mastercard: We're recovering from Wikileaks related attacks
No research? On ZDnet?? What else is new...Bloggers just spew out attention grabbing headlines and whatever random thoughts enter their brains. Real research is done sometimes by Mary Jo or Ed but the rest are just blog filler.
You were expecting different???
In my book it is still Wednesday
"Mastercard said Thursday that it is" ... in a lot of places around the world it is still Wednesday.
Time travel
I have witnessed it myself.RE: Mastercard: We're recovering from Wikileaks related attacks
@Mister Spock
Chuckle.... Nice!zenwalker12/08/2010 05:44 PMRE: Mastercard: We're recovering from Wikileaks related attacks
Larry, I think that's sex offences not offensives, unless he's planning an all out sex warI think these companies were wrong to give in to threats and extortion by the US and its allies, just as they'd be wrong to do anything based on these attacks which are much the same thing.
Next time, they might consider saying NO to extortion, threats and intimidation by governments.
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2010-12-09
Mastercard: We're recovering from Wikileaks related attacks | ZDNet
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