Anonymous attacks British government sites

Anonymous has attacked the websites of the UK Ministry of Justice and the Department for Work and Pensions corporate website, royal.gov.uk, gateway.gov.uk, statistics.gov.uk and number10.gov.uk. The attack is a protest for Britain’s handling of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The assault on the websites is being carried out under a campaign branded #OpFreeAssange.

Earlier this week Ecuador has granted asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange two months after he took refuge in its London embassy while fighting extradition from the UK. Foreign minister Ricardo Patino accused the UK of making an "open threat" to enter its embassy to arrest Mr Assange.


A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice website said it "had been experiencing some disruption". "This is a public information website and no sensitive data is held on it. No other Ministry of Justice systems have been affected," she said in a statement. "Measures put in place to keep the website running mean that some visitors may be unable to access the site intermittently. We will continue to monitor the situation and will take measures accordingly," she added.