Hackers have launched a spate of cyber attacks on British government websites to protest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition to Sweden, Sky News reported on Tuesday.
The attacks on Monday night originated in numerous countries, including Indonesia, the United States, Britain, Brazil and Chile.
The hackers used Twitter to spread code to overload websites of the Ministry of Justice, 10 Downing Street, the Home Office and the Department of Work and Pensions.
“Most sites proved resilient to the so-called denial of service assaults and appeared to be working normally on Tuesday, however the Ministry of Justice admitted it had been affected in the assault,” Sky News said.
Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London for two months as he fights extradition to Sweden on sex crime charges, which he denies. Last Thursday Assange was granted asylum in Ecuador but he still faces arrest the minute he steps out of the embassy building.
The world's most famous whistleblower is suspected of sexual assault against two women that allegedly took place in August 2010. He claims the sex was consensual and the accusations against him are politically motivated.
