Anonymous: Anonymous has always been a big supporter of Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange. Julian Assange has been receiving asylum from the Ecuadoran government in their London Embassy since a warrant for his arrest was issued back in 2012. This morning, the Ecuadoran government withdrew their support for Assange and allowed London’s Metropolitan Police to enter the Embassy and arrest Assange. The Ecuadoran government stated that they chose to withdraw their support for Mr. Assange for “his repeated violations to [sic] international conventions and daily-life protocols.” In March of last year, Ecuador removed Mr. Assange’s access to the internet because his continued work with Wikileaks violated their stance on interfering in international affairs. After his access was removed, many members of Anonymous would stand outside the embassy with mobile hotspots for Mr. Assange to be able to log into if he chose to. Mr. Assange faces charges not only in England but also in the United States, and currently has a sexual assault case open against him in Sweden, who has said that they may reissue a warrant against him at any time. Within hours of the announcement of Mr. Assange’s arrest, Anons were claiming “Tango Down” on both the Ecuadoran Embassy in London as well as the website for the Environmental Secretary of Ecuador. While the Embassy’s website is still currently offline, the environmental Secretary’s website was restored almost immediately.
Analyst Notes
While DDoS attacks have already begun, they will probably not continue to be attempted beyond a couple of days. The majority of activity around this arrest will likely come in the form of “Tweet Storms.” If the British Government chooses to extradite Mr. Assange to the United States, the focus will probably shift away from Ecuador.
