In 2011, online payment giant PayPal stopped processing online donations for Wikileaks, the well publicized whistle blowing website founded by Julian Assange.

This cut-off more or less left Wikileaks without a means to finance its operations, nor defend its founder, who is under the protection the Ecuador Embassy in London while he avoids extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted to stand trial for alleged crimes.

In the meantime, many of Wikileaks’ supporters became incensed at PayPal for cutting off service. In late November, 2012, it was publicized that a student at Northampton University was the alleged mastermind of the “Anonymous” DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks to the PayPal system, which cost the company over $5 million to repair. The three co-defendants have already pled guilty and will be sentenced later.