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PayPal’s cost from the December 2010 Anonymous DDoS attacks was reported in court coverage as £3.5 million. That figure included investment in hardware and software to defend against similar attacks, alongside related economic harm; it was not described as a bill for outage losses alone.
Why did Anonymous attack PayPal?
PayPal suspended accounts used to process donations to WikiLeaks after WikiLeaks released classified U.S. State Department cables in late November 2010. Anonymous coordinated attacks against PayPal in retaliation. The U.S. Department of Justice calls the PayPal operation Operation Avenge Assange; it was part of the broader Operation Payback campaign. The DOJ’s 2013 account describes the trigger and the defendants’ guilty pleas.
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What was the DDoS attack?
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack tries to make a website or network unavailable by overwhelming it with communications or other traffic. In its 2011 announcement, the DOJ described attempts to saturate target computers or networks with external communications requests. Its 2013 account said tools flooded targets with useless commands and information, denying service to legitimate users.
The UK sentencing report said the campaign’s purpose was to crash websites temporarily, not to steal information or cause permanent damage. Judge Peter Testar characterized it as protest activity, while also condemning the use of attacks to curtail an organization’s activities. The Independent’s report covers the judge’s remarks and the sentences.
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What did the £3.5 million include?
In a 23 November 2012 report about the prosecution of Christopher Weatherhead, ITPro reported that PayPal’s defensive hardware and software investment, together with the incident’s impact, totaled £3.5 million. The court figure therefore combined defensive spending and related economic harm. It should not be read as an independently itemized estimate of direct downtime losses.
The same UK sentencing coverage reported costs for other targeted organizations. Those figures were reported estimates, and the report did not disclose the financial impact on MasterCard or Visa.
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| Organization | Reported financial impact |
|---|---|
| PayPal | £3.5 million, including defensive hardware and software investment and related economic harm (ITPro, 2012) |
| Ministry of Sound | £9,000 estimated site-attack cost (The Independent, 2013) |
| IFPI | More than £20,000 (The Independent, 2013) |
| BPI | More than £4,000 (The Independent, 2013) |
| MasterCard and Visa | Not disclosed in the UK sentencing report (The Independent, 2013) |
Who was convicted or pleaded guilty?
UK case
The UK prosecution concerned conspiracy to impair the operation of computers. The Independent reported these outcomes:
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- Christopher Weatherhead, 22, was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
- Ashley Rhodes, 28, received seven months after admitting the charge.
- Peter Gibson, 24, received a six-month sentence suspended for two years, plus community service.
The campaign also targeted MasterCard, Visa, the BPI, the IFPI and Ministry of Sound sites, according to the sentencing report.
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- This Visa Virtual eGift Card is non-reloadable. No cash or ATM access. Visa Virtual eGift Cards are emailed active.
- Funds do not expire but your Visa Virtual eGift Card has a ‘valid thru’ date (9 years from date of purchase). If funds remain after this date has passed, please call the Toll Free number found on your Visa Virtual eGift Card for a replacement card. A one-time purchase fee applies at the time of checkout.
- This item is not eligible for refund, resale, or return. Available for sale within the United States only. Not available to residents of Puerto Rico, Hawaii, New Mexico, South Dakota, West Virginia and the US Virgin Islands.
U.S. case
On 6 December 2013, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced that 13 defendants had pleaded guilty in federal court in San Jose in connection with the December 2010 PayPal attack. The plea agreements described the attack as retaliation for PayPal ending WikiLeaks donation processing. The DOJ’s earlier announcement concerned charges and allegations; at that stage, defendants were presumed innocent.
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- When you access your Visa Virtual eGift Card for the first time, you’ll need to register your name, address, phone number, and email address via activationspot.com. These details should also be used as your billing address for online purchases, as many merchants require address verification for purchase authorization.
- This Visa Virtual eGift Card is non-reloadable. No cash or ATM access. Visa Virtual eGift Cards are emailed active.
- Funds do not expire but your Visa Virtual eGift Card has a ‘valid thru’ date (9 years from date of purchase). If funds remain after this date has passed, please call the Toll Free number found on your Visa Virtual eGift Card for a replacement card. A one-time purchase fee applies at the time of checkout.
- This item is not eligible for refund, resale, or return. Available for sale within the United States only. Not available to residents of Puerto Rico, Hawaii, New Mexico, South Dakota, West Virginia and the US Virgin Islands.
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- When you access your Visa Virtual eGift Card for the first time, you’ll need to register your name, address, phone number, and email address via activationspot.com. These details should also be used as your billing address for online purchases, as many merchants require address verification for purchase authorization.
- This Visa Virtual eGift Card is non-reloadable. No cash or ATM access. Visa Virtual eGift Cards are emailed active.
- Funds do not expire but your Visa Virtual eGift Card has a ‘valid thru’ date (9 years from date of purchase). If funds remain after this date has passed, please call the Toll Free number found on your Visa Virtual eGift Card for a replacement card. A one-time purchase fee applies at the time of checkout.
- This item is not eligible for refund, resale, or return. Available for sale within the United States only. Not available to residents of Puerto Rico, Hawaii, New Mexico, South Dakota, West Virginia and the US Virgin Islands.
How the UK and U.S. cases differ
| Issue | UK reporting | U.S. DOJ account |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger and motive | PayPal’s refusal to process WikiLeaks donations; described in court coverage as protest | PayPal suspended WikiLeaks accounts, followed by coordinated retaliation |
| Attack method | DDoS attacks intended to take websites temporarily out of service | DDoS using tools that flooded targets with traffic, commands or information |
| Legal process | Conspiracy to impair the operation of computers | Federal prosecution in San Jose concerning the December 2010 attack |
| Reported outcome | Conviction, guilty plea and sentences for the three people named in sentencing coverage | 13 defendants pleaded guilty, as announced in December 2013 |
| Financial impact | PayPal’s £3.5 million figure and costs reported for other targeted organizations | Not stated in the cited DOJ announcements |
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