MasterCard Website Down

MasterCard website down; cyberattack blamed

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- MasterCard's corporate website was inaccessible because of an apparent cyberattack Wednesday, but the credit card company said that its cards are still functioning.

A tweet on Twitter indicated a possible tie to a recent MasterCard move against WikiLeaks, the website that recently released thousands of secret U.S. State Department documents, but that could not be confirmed.

"MasterCard is experiencing heavy traffic on its external corporate website - MasterCard.com," the company said, in a prepared statement. "We are working to restore normal speed of service. There is no impact whatsoever on our cardholders ability to use their cards for secure transactions."

Various news agencies reported that supporters of WikiLeaks are claiming to have launched a cyberattack in retaliation for MasterCard's refusal to process payments from WikiLeaks.

"It's a concentrated effort to flood our corporate website with traffic and slow access," said MasterCard spokesman James Issokson.

Issokson wouldn't comment on allegations of who was behind the attack. But on Tuesday, MasterCard said it was "working to suspend the acceptance of MasterCard cards on WikiLeaks."

On Twitter, a post from a handle called @Anon_Operation took responsibility for the attacks, tweeting about its so-called Operation Payback: "We are glad to tell you that Mastercard.com is down and it's confirmed. Operation: Payback (is a bitch!)"

There was no immediate confirmation that whoever is behind the handle is responsible for the attack. 

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/08/news/companies/mastercard_wiki/