Ecuador hit with 40 million cyber-attacks since Julian Assange arrest
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Ecuadorian government has been hit with more than 40 million cyber-attacks since Julian Assange was arrested last Thursday.
The webpages of the South American country’s public institutions, including the office of President Lenín Moreno, have been targeted in the attacks.
In a statement made by an official Monday, they believe this is the result of stripping the WikiLeaks founder of his political asylum.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Patricio Real, Ecuador’s deputy minister for information and communication technologies, informed the public that the government has been combatting nearly double the normal amount of cyber-threats.
The effort against the government has “principally come from the United States, Brazil, Holland, Germany, Romania, France, Austria, and the United Kingdom,” Real told AFP.
Real informed the public that the threats have been unsuccessful in stealing or deleting data.
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Javier Jara, the country’s undersecretary of the electronic government department of the telecommunications ministry, also claimed on Monday that many of the “volumetric attacks” were associated with “threats from those groups linked to Julian Assange.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In a statement last Thursday, President Moreno credited his decision to remove Assange from the embassy due to his repeated rejection of “the norm of not intervening in the internal affairs of other states.”
The final violation for Moreno came when WikiLeaks threatened the government of Ecuador last Tuesday.
“My government has nothing to fear and does not act under threats,” Moreno concluded in his statement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Moreno, who inherited the Assange situation from the previous administration under President Rafel Correa, has been vocal about his disapproval for the Australian-leaker. The President had gone to lengths to restrict Assange’s internet access and accusing him of “spying,” in the months leading to his removal.
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Assange remains in the custody of the U.K. and is set to appear in London court on May 2nd. He faces criminal charges in the U.S. and awaits possible extradition.