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Notorious message board 4Chan, a popular hangout for some high-profile hacker groups—including Anonymous, the group that launched attacks worldwide in support of WikiLeaks—was taken offline this week by an overwhelming Internet attack. While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, some are speculating it could be in retaliation for similar attacks launched by 4Chan members in the past, reports the BBC.
4Chan founder Christopher Poole confirmed the attack on his blog: "Site is down due to DDoS"—or Denial of Service. "We now join the ranks of MasterCard, Visa, Paypal, et al—an exclusive club!" A DDoS attack involves overwhelming a server with a massive number of requests for information, effectively rendering it inoperable. The group Anonymous similarly brought down websites for corporations that blocked support of WikiLeaks.
