Far from the turmoil of new Facebook data breaches and APT threats, hackers are fighting for Julian Assange or maybe just attention.

Look up #OpAssange, #OpUK, #OpEcuador and you will find DDoS, hacks, alleged hacks, small leaks, and big ambitions.

Some of the attacks are targeting small sites with lousy security that didn’t do anything wrong other than have an Ecuador domain.

Accordingly to @your_anon_net, this is a severe leak.

https://ghostbin.com/paste/wx8rh

Hacking the agricultural university of Ecuador is for sure not something of significant concern for the Ecuadorian government.

Another targeted school was Ecuador’s School of the Judicial Function website https://escuela.funcionjudicial.gob.ec/ .

Yet the full list of attacked Ecuador sites sites is quite long and it comprehends many Ecuadorian Consulates, public and private institutions.

The government of Ecuador disclosed that they have been attacked more than 40 million times since the arrest of Assange, but again the true extent and forms of those attacks were not disclosed in more details.

But not only Ecuador is the target, as the UK is also on the list.



Allegedly websites like the National archive or the national crime agency went down, yet if they even were unavailable than for a short amount of time or it never happened. But at the same time I could verify that police.uk was down for a longer period of time.

Accordingly to isitdownrightnow.com The NAtional Archive wasn’t affected or for a very short period of time

Police.uk was taken down

Who is behind those attacks?



At #OpUK, the operation to disrupt the United Kingdom, that the most prominent group is called @Pryzraky that formed by different Hackers. In this case, @Mecz1nho and @al1ne3737 are the ones that claim most of the attacks.

In addition to that two anonymous groups are taking part in the operation called @your_anon_net and @An0nym0us_Esp.

Although @Pryzraky group member claim that many of their hacks are being stolen by new Anonymous groups.

#FreeAssange #OpEcuador



I hate when I have the job of gathering information and vulnerabilities from Ecuadorian Government websites and posting on my twitter, to come to "anonymous" and steal all my publications and use for their own benefit without giving the proper credits. — al1ne3737 (@al1ne3737) April 17, 2019



Also, @CyberGhost404 seems to have joined the efforts. This Hacker is also part of another hacker collective called Philippines Cyber Eagles.

At #OpEcuador @your_anon_net is again active in the movement, together with @ArksKaiser, @cyb3rc0v3nsec and @Karamujo18.

Most of the attacks are DDoS, SQL Injections, and few data leaks.

Netscout has a live Cyber Threat horizon DDoS map.

Although such maps are only an indication of such traffic and should always be taken with a pinch of salt, it is interesting to compare the attacks of #OpEcuador in time.

The arrest of Julian Assange was on the 12 of April, and you can see a clear indication of DDoS to the country, the time #OpEcuador was in effect.



Netscout Cyber Threat horizon 14 of April 2019

One month before you have similar if not higher traffic.

Netscout Cyber Threat horizon 13 of March 2019



In comparison, December 7, 2018, had much lower traffic.



Netscout Cyber Threat horizon 11 of December 2018

Netscout also has summary reports, and if you look into the statistics it looks like the March attacks had higher frequency and volumes than April.

The question is, who was attacking Equador before? Was it Nation State Hacking Groups? Did they have or wanted to gather intelligence on the arrest of Julian Assange before it happened?

It is a possibility that could not be verified.

If you see any errors or you want to contact me say hello on twitter or keybase.