Skip to main content

WikiLeaks supporters take MasterCard offline

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The cyber-battle over WikiLeaks—and its now-jailed founder Julian Assange—continues to spread. The primary Web site for credit card company MasterCard has been taken offline by an apparent denial of service attack—the site has been offline for several hours and remains inaccessible as of this writing. Various groups supporting WikiLeaks—including 4chan’s “Anonymous” and Operation: PayBack—have claimed credit for the attack on Twitter and other channels, saying the action is in retaliation for MasterCard blocking WikiLeaks from its payment network.

Groups of attackers—likely including many of the same people—also took a Swiss postal service bank PostFinance offline earlier this week, after the bank announced it had cut off Assange’s accounts, claiming he had “provided false information recarding his place of residence.” WikiLeaks supporters have also targeted online payment service PayPal, although PayPal has so far remained accessible.

WikiLeaks founder is currently in jail in London, fighting a Swedish extradition order. Swedish authorities have charged Assange with rape and other sex crimes based on complaints filed by two women. Assange has denied the charges.

The WikiLeaks Web site has caused significant diplomatic concerns for releasing various classified materials and diplomatic cables related to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as confidential internal communications concerning the United States’ relationship with key allies. The communications have revealed U.S. doubts about the reliability of allies like Pakistan and conveyed unflattering portrayals of various world leaders. The cables have also revealed a U.S. wish for Saudi Arabia to conduct a military strike against Iran, and raised questions about the Chinese government’s role in this year’s cyberattack on Google.

Reports have U.S. authorities considering whether espionage and other charges can be brought against Assange for releasing material in classified documents.

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
Lenovo sale: Get up to 67% off ThinkPad Laptops, from $600
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 front angled view showing display and keyboard.

Lenovo has a huge laptop sale going on right now with select ThinkPad laptops available from just $600. If you need a new system for your small business, working on the move, or other productivity-focused plans, these are the laptop deals for you. With over a dozen laptops in the sale, it’s a good idea to take a look at the sale for yourself, but we’re also here with some insight into the best deals.

What to shop for in the Lenovo laptop sale
Lenovo is one of the best laptop brands for reliability and business purposes. One great starting point is being able to buy the for $600. According to Lenovo, it normally costs $1,839 which seems a little unrealistic but in keeping with Lenovo’s overly enthusiastic estimated value system. However, whatever the discount, this is a good laptop for the price. It has a 12th-generation Intel Core i5-1235U processor, 16GB of memory, and 256GB of SSD storage. For the display, you get a 14-inch full HD screen with 45% NTSC and 300 nits of brightness. There’s also a 1080p full HD RGB/IR Hybrid webcam with a privacy shutter and dual microphones.

Read more
Ghost of Tsushima is already shaping up to be a monster PC port
Jin wearing the Sarugami armor with Iki island in the background.

Sony detailed the features that will be available in the Ghost of Tsushima PC port on Tuesday, setting the stage for when the game launches on May 16. Despite some rocky PC ports from PlayStation Studios and porting studio Nixxes in the past, Ghost of Tsushima already looks impressive.
Ghost of Tsushima DLSS, FSR, and XeSS
It's launching with all of the modern bells and whistles a PC gamer could want. That includes support for Nvidia's DLSS 3 and AMD's FSR 3, both of which support upscaling and frame generation. There's also support for Intel XeSS, as well as native anti-aliasing modes for FSR and DLSS. This runs the game at native resolution but uses the anti-aliasing of the upscalers for improved image quality -- read our explainer on Nvidia Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing for more on that.

There's a treasure trove of features here that means virtually every PC gamer will have access to performance-boosting tech. FSR 3 support at launch is particularly noteworthy. Adoption of AMD's frame generation tech has been slow, and although we've seen it in recent games, it usually isn't available at launch.

Read more
The 5 best laptops for architects in 2024
AutoCAD

Architecture applications tend to require a lot of hardware resources, so laptops that work for architecture tend to be more like workstations than anything else. Of course, that does mean that they come at a pretty steep price, which is why we've picked our favorite laptops that will give you the most bang for your buck. The laptops below should easily handle most architecture applications you throw at them, although if you don't quite find what you're looking for, you may want to check out our list of the best laptops for CAD and 3D modeling.
The Best Laptops for Architects in 2024

Buy the  if you want the best overall laptop for architects
Buy the  if you want the best MacBook for architects
Buy the  if you want the best thin and portable laptop for architects
Buy the  if you want the best large-screen laptop for architects
Buy the  if you want the best dual-screen laptop for architects

Read more