Talking tactics
Members of hacktivist group Anonymous are thought to be mulling a tactical U-turn to drop their DDoS attacks on sites that have not cooperated with WikiLeaks.
A member of the group called Coldblood has told the BBC that attacks in support of the whistle blowing website are being wound down, although the group yesterday aborted plans to bring down Amazon and directed its energy towards PayPal instead.
One wing of the disparate group has apparently proposed shelving the DDoS attacks in a bid to focus attention on what WikiLeaks is actually revealing in the leaked cables- which has in a way been overshadowed by Anonymous' payback attacks on large websites.
However, there are conflicting reports that the group is mulling an attack on the UK government if WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is extradited and there have also reportedly been calls to attacks on Dutch websites after a 16 year old suspected of hacking was arrested.
There are also reports that earlier attacks in the campaign were made more effective with the help of pro high-tech criminals, whereas the new action is more home-made.
Luis Corrons, technical director of Panda Labs reportedly said some earlier attacks were made successful by the use of 30,000 machines under cyber criminals' control.
The BBC said a message posted on 4chan's board by an Anonymous member suggested publicising the content of the cables obtained by WikiLeaks instead of attacking companies.
The message reportedly said: "Searching for the less-well publicised cables and spreading the information they contain around the web could be more effective than simply knocking out sites deemed to be enemies of Wikileaks. They don't fear the LOIC, they fear exposure."
It also reportedly suggested that hacktivists use misleading tags on YouTube videos and posts to trick people into reading the information.
However, it is not known whether members will opt to keep up the DDoS attacks or change tactics.
