(CNN) - Sarah Palin is blaming supporters of WikiLeaks for a cyber-attack that briefly brought down her her political action committee web site this week.
Beginning Tuesday, an anonymous network of hackers sympathetic to WikiLeaks launched a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against against companies and political leaders critical of the whistle-blowing website, which has released thousands of previously-classified U.S. government documents.
The loose network of so-called "hacktivists" is calling itself "Operation Payback." A Twitter handle for the group took responsibility this week for attacks against Visa and Mastercard, which recently stopped accepting payments for WikiLeaks.
Palin last week accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of having "blood on his hands" and called on the U.S. government to hunt him "with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders."
SarahPAC.com was listed as an Operation Payback target and was brought down multiple times Tuesday for a period totaling 25 minutes, according to web chatter captured by the online security firm Panda Labs. The site was functioning normally as of late Wednesday.
"Governor Palin spoke out about Wikileaks because it has no regard for law or human life," SarahPAC adviser Andy Davis told CNN. "Today we learned their supporters have attacked the Palin family's personal information. Wikileaks remains a threat to every freedom-loving citizen across the globe. The world should not be intimidated. Governor Palin isn't."
The Palin adviser said Sarah and Todd Palin's personal credit card information was compromised Wednesday, but there was no immediate confirmation that the credit card problem was related to the cyberattacks.
The cyber-attack was first reported by ABC News.
The website of Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, was also attacked this week, Lieberman's office confirmed to CNN.
– CNN's Dugald McConnell contributed to this report
From CNN Politics
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Thank you Wiki!
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah...your far more dangerous than anything Wiki could pull off
I'd be surprised if anyone that backs Sarah Palin knows anything more about websites than Geocities or Angelfire.
Must we hear something about the Palin's every single day? How about they "...attacked the Palin family's personal information." How much more is there to know. If they wait it'll be on her TV show next week.
Any cyber attack on Palin is a good attack. Rock on!
Bummer, the site is back...
Hm. So, for those upset about the despicable censorship of wikileaks, remember this: the only path to change is revolution. In America we sometimes call that an "election." Hijacking some idiot's website is what's called a "temporary skirmish," and will change nothing. Telling people not to do business with companies is another temporary attack that people will forget quickly.
1) Need HIGHLY SYMBOLIC ACTION THAT BRINGS MEMBERS TOGETHER
2) Need WELL DEFINED ENEMY AND REASONABLE ARGUMENT
3) Need to FORCE ENEMY TO DO STUPID THINGS IN RESPONSE
What you have done instead is fall into your enemy's trap by performing 3 from their point of view. Please stop and pull them into traps instead, as Assange has done.
Look, what these a-holes are doing is just wrong, no matter who their target is. Assange leaked secret information that has harmed diplomatic missions across the world, he did so with no regard for the repercussions, and he did it to get back at the US government for whatever. He's wrong in what he did. But let me ask something about SarahPac. Is it a Political Action Committee, or a family project to publicize them to the world? Because that is a distinct violation of political fundraising rules. Since it doesn't get reported as income, they are only supposed to use it for whatever political agenda they support, not for Sarah and her family's information dissemination.
Palin is only an opportunist, no depth, no plan. She would crash her own system if she could get some mileage out of it.
Wiki-leaks is the best thing that has happened to America since Ellsberg
Someone needs to inform Andy that she is former governor.................
Nevermind her website, TAKE HER DOWN!
Somebody shut her up, the most insignificant person on the planet and she gets so much air time.
Palin is only an opportunist, no depth, no plan. She would crash her own system if she could get some mileage out of it.
Wiki-leaks is the best thing that has happened to America since Daniel Ellsberg.
In the name of all that is Holy, bring down her Twitter account or all of Twitter if necessary, just so CNN will stop reporting on every tweet from this twit.
Looks like the Mama Grizzley/Lipsticked Pittbull just got hunted. How does it feel, Palin?
assange is leading the sheep to commit more and more crimes. mastercard got hit by them too. the idiots are probably seeing him as some kind of martyr when really all he is is a lonely, egotistical criminal.
As much as I detested Sarah because she lies so much,But I think she shouldn't be censored, believe in freedom of speech for no matter how dumb or lying about president Obama.
How is she still "Governor" Palin? She quit her job. It should be "Opportunitist" Palin.
I guess if we pursue him with the same urgency as we pursue Osama Bin Laden, he has nothing to fear.
I thought SP quit as Governor! Did she get reelected in November?
sarah, you are a joke. you think this movement cares enough about you to bother?
seriously? are the american people really this dumb... im going to hack your website and leave my buisness card so you can know i was here...
Wow, the first comments by Sarah Palin I agree with!
Maybe it's RUSSIA!!
There has to be at least 295 million suspects if Palins web site was hacked, it would not be her couple million supporters. She is not well liked or respected around the world so this will be a pretty big nut to crack with so many that could be suspects. 10 to one there is 100 posts on here that wish her mouth could be shut down !