[Infowarrior] - WikiLeaks Struggles to Stay Online After Cyberattacks

[Richard Forno]

("Intermediary Censorship" is how this practice was described. --- rick)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/world/europe/04domain.html?_r=1&src=mv&pagewanted=print
December 3, 2010
WikiLeaks Struggles to Stay Online After Cyberattacks

By RAVI SOMAIYA and ALAN COWELL

LONDON — An American provider of Internet domain names withdrew its service to the WikiLeaks Web site after a barrage of attacks by hackers that threatened to destabilize its entire system, according to the provider and WikiLeaks itself on Friday. But within hours, WikiLeaks said it had registered its domain name in Switzerland.

By mid-morning, attempts to access the original Wikileaks.org Web site produced only a page saying: “The address is not valid.” The new domain name, Wikileaks.ch, appeared to be providing only sporadic access to the site.

The action by EveryDNS.net, which provides domain names for about 500,000 Web sites, followed a decision on Wednesday by Amazon.com Inc. to expel WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing organization, from its servers. WikiLeaks remains on the servers of a Swedish host, Bahnhof, as it continues to anger the United States by publicizing a huge array of some 250,000 leaked State Department documents relating to American foreign policy around the globe.

In a statement on its Web site, EveryDNS.com said it terminated WikiLeaks’ domain name at around 10 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

“The services were terminated for violation of the provision which states that a ‘member shall not interfere with another member’s use and enjoyment of the service or another entity’s use and enjoyment of similar services.’”

It said wikileaks.org “has become the target of multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.” Such attacks usually involve bombarding a Web site with attacks, preventing legitimate users from access, and are designed to make a targeted Web site unavailable. When questioned about similar cyberattacks on Sunday against WikiLeaks, American officials vigorously denied any involvement.

The whistle-blowing Web site appears increasingly engaged in a game of digital Whac-A-Mole as it struggles to stay online. The Web infrastructure that supports WikiLeaks is deliberately diffuse and difficult to track, with servers spread through many countries in order to insulate the site from hostile states or companies.

According to the Web site whois.com, the new domain, wikileaks.ch, is registered to the Swiss branch of the Swedish Pirate Party, a political organization that has previously worked with Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder. Mr. Assange is being sought for questioning in connection to alleged sex crimes in Sweden, which he denies.

In an interview with The New York Times earlier this year, the Pirate Party’s leader, Rickard Falkvinge, expressed an open offer to host the WikiLeaks site because “our organizations generally share the same values — we value privacy, transparency, democracy and knowledge.” Mr. Falkvinge added that any sharing of Web services between the two organizations would offer “heightened political protection. Any prosecutors will have to target a political party in us, and the price for doing that is much higher.”

WikiLeaks reacted to the domain name switch on its Twitter feed, writing just after midnight on Friday morning: “WikiLeaks.org domain killed by US everydns.net after claimed mass attacks.”

It implored supporters to “keep us strong” and provided a link for financial donations. Hours later, a message on the WikiLeaks Twitter feed said: “WikiLeaks moved to Switzerland” and provided the new Web address.

Earlier this week, Amazon — which rents server space to companies in addition to its online retail business — canceled its relationship with WikiLeaks after inquiries from an aide to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman. The company said the organization was violating the terms of service for the program.

“When companies or people go about securing and storing large quantities of data that isn’t rightfully theirs, and publishing this data without ensuring it won’t injure others, it’s a violation of our terms of service, and folks need to go operate elsewhere,” the company said.

Anna Mossberg, Banhof’s chief executive, said her company held “two physical WikiLeaks servers in our data hall in Stockholm.” Those servers, she said, have been cyberattacked in recent weeks, though Bahnhof has come under no overt government pressure to abandon them. “But I know we are not the only provider of WikiLeaks’ servers — they are everywhere.”

Ravi Somaiya reported from London, Alan Cowell from Paris. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington and J. David Goodman from New York.