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December 10, 2010, 11:50 AM EST
By Celeste Perri and John Buckley
(Updates with Dutch prosecutor statement in third paragraph.)
Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Dutch public prosecutor said a 16-year-old boy admitted attacking the websites of MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. in support of WikiLeaks.
The suspect, who is from The Hague, will be held in custody for 13 days, the prosecutor said in a release on its website today. His name wasn’t released.
The Dutch public prosecutor’s website has also been “completely down for a short period,” today, following a cyber attack, the agency said in a separate statement. The attack was probably related to the teen’s apprehension, according to the statement.
The detention of the 16-year-old comes as the U.S. Justice Department is examining cyber attacks that have been blamed on WikiLeaks supporters. MasterCard’s website was slowed this week by a flood of traffic in a denial-of-service attack after the company blocked payments to WikiLeaks via its network.
MasterCard, the world’s second-biggest payments processor, and London-based Visa Europe Ltd. said on Dec. 7 they were suspending use of their networks by WikiLeaks after the organization on Nov. 28 began publishing secret U.S. military and State Department documents online.
Visa took steps to restore its website to full operation after experiencing heavier than normal traffic. Amazon.com Inc. and EBay Inc.’s PayPal unit also recently cut off access to WikiLeaks. PayPal said it was taking additional steps today as it sustained cyber attacks.
--With assistance from Jeroen Molenaar in Amsterdam. Editors: Anthony Aarons, Christopher Scinta
To contact the reporter on this story: Celeste Perri in Amsterdam at cperri@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net.
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(Updates with Dutch prosecutor statement in third paragraph.)
Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Dutch public prosecutor said a 16-year-old boy admitted attacking the websites of MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. in support of WikiLeaks.
The suspect, who is from The Hague, will be held in custody for 13 days, the prosecutor said in a release on its website today. His name wasn’t released.
The Dutch public prosecutor’s website has also been “completely down for a short period,” today, following a cyber attack, the agency said in a separate statement. The attack was probably related to the teen’s apprehension, according to the statement.
The detention of the 16-year-old comes as the U.S. Justice Department is examining cyber attacks that have been blamed on WikiLeaks supporters. MasterCard’s website was slowed this week by a flood of traffic in a denial-of-service attack after the company blocked payments to WikiLeaks via its network.
MasterCard, the world’s second-biggest payments processor, and London-based Visa Europe Ltd. said on Dec. 7 they were suspending use of their networks by WikiLeaks after the organization on Nov. 28 began publishing secret U.S. military and State Department documents online.
Visa took steps to restore its website to full operation after experiencing heavier than normal traffic. Amazon.com Inc. and EBay Inc.’s PayPal unit also recently cut off access to WikiLeaks. PayPal said it was taking additional steps today as it sustained cyber attacks.
--With assistance from Jeroen Molenaar in Amsterdam. Editors: Anthony Aarons, Christopher Scinta
To contact the reporter on this story: Celeste Perri in Amsterdam at cperri@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net.
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