the big payback

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The Raw Story | Operation Payback raised the stakes in the battle over WikiLeaks' Julian Assange when it began attacking credit card providers Visa and MasterCard over their freezing of WikiLeaks accounts,, causing parts of the companies' online operations to go dark.But the disappearance of the group from Twitter is expected to be short-lived, as setting up a new account is relatively easy.

One such account, Anon Operationn, already appears to be operational.

For its part, WikiLeaks appeared to be in a charitable mood today, perhaps in an attempt to dampen anger in some corners over the leaked State Department cables and cyber-attacks on anti-WikiLeaks groups.

"We are replacing operation #payback with operation #payitforward," WikiLeaks announced on Twitter. "Hackers, please perform random acts of kindness."

UPDATE IV: Sarah Palin is the latest target of "Operation Payback," the group of hacktivists who have been launching cyber-attacks against organizations and people working against WikiLeaks.

Palin drew attention last week when she said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be "pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders."

ABC News reports:

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email.

Hackers in London apparently affiliated with “Operation Payback” – a group of supporters of Julian Assange and Wikileaks – have tried to shut down SarahPac and have disrupted Sarah and Todd Palin’s personal credit card accounts.

According to ABC's Jake Tapper, the website associated with Operation Payback -- anonops.net -- had listed Palin's website as a potential target.

“This is what happens when you exercise the First Amendment and speak against his sick, un-American espionage efforts,” Palin said in an email.