By Aaron Miller-
Ecuador has been targeted with more than 40 million cyber attacks from “groups linked to Julian Assange” in the five days following its revocation of his asylum and subsequent arrest by UK authorities.
The finance ministry and president’s office were targeted from computers in the US, Brazil, Germany, Romania, UK, and France, Patricio Real, Ecuador’s deputy minister for information told AFP.
. The country’s deputy minister for information and communication technologies, Patricio Real, claimed that its institutions’ websites had faced 40 million cyberattacks in the days since it effectively turned Assange in. The attacks flooded a number of major targets including President Moreno’s office, the internal revenue service and the central bank.
Real said they “principally” came from the US, UK, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and even Ecuador. The WikiLeaks founder was arrested at Ecuador’s London embassy last Thursday by UK police after Equador decided the controversial whistle blower had constituted a nuisance to guards at the embassy and continued to compromise secret information and interfering in the affairs of different nations including Equador itself.
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Assange has his defenders who believe that the leaks should fall under press freedom and that the level of secrecy associated with the information he released should not be allowed to conflict with the rights of free speech. Many argue that the atrocities exposed in many of the leak documents he released contained information necessary for public knowledge. Those who have called for Assange’s head through out his seven year exile cannot wait to get their political and legal claws on him.
Assange, 47 faces extradition to the US to face a government hacking charge, or to Sweden to face allegations of rape. Ecuador was once Assange’s closest ally under former President Rafael Correra All that changed when Ecuador elected Moreno, however that relationship has now been overridden by current president Lenin Morreno . WikiLeaks released troves of embarrassing emails which promoted the resignation of Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and went a long way to discrediting U.S 2016 candidate, Hilary Clinton.
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