Assange’s WikiLeaks Hints At Involvement Of ‘Supporters’ In Major DDoS Attack

Soon after major websites — like Twitter, Amazon, Paypal and Spotify — were forced to go offline early Friday, Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks has signaled at an involvement of its “supporters” in the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on major internet performance management company, Dyn, that may have caused the outage.

Dyn said that it had suffered its first DDoS attack soon after 6 a.m. EDT, mostly affecting the east coast of the United States. According to CNBC, the company said the attack is “well planned and executed, coming from tens of millions of IP addresses at same time.”

The attacks come days after Assange said that the United States was attempting to cut him off from the outside world while he sits barricaded in Ecuador’s embassy in London by removing his internet access. The Ecuadorean government confirmed WikiLeaks’ claim that Assange’s internet connection was cut off, citing interference in the U.S. presidential election as the reason behind removal of access.

“The Government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states. It does not interfere in external electoral processes, nor does it favor any particular candidate,” the country said in a statement Tuesday.

While the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the agency was “investigating all potential causes” behind the attacks on the websites, WikiLeaks used its Twitter handle to indicate that those supporting the organization’s work may have orchestrated the hacks, requesting them to quit doing so.

“Mr Assange is still alive and WikiLeaks is still publishing,” WikiLeaks said on Twitter, asking its “supporters” to stand back after making their point.

The controversial organization then posted another tweet: “The Obama administration should not have attempted to misuse its instruments of state to stop criticism of its ruling party candidate.”

WikiLeaks and Assange have been behind the release of a number of controversial government documents and, more recently, a spate of emails by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, which show her and the party in an unfavorable light.