Council website taken down by ‘free Julian Assange’ hackers

A council website has been taken down by pro-Julian Assange hackers calling for the Wikileaks founder to be freed.
By The Newsroom
Published 17th Apr 2019, 14:48 GMT
Updated 23rd Apr 2019, 13:42 GMT
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Barnsley Council’s website was attacked and taken down as part of a campaign to free Assange, who was arrested last week.

Assange, who had taken refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years, is being threatened with extradition to the United States for publishing classified material including information about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Julian Assange was arrested last week after seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)Julian Assange was arrested last week after seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
Julian Assange was arrested last week after seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
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He is also wanted for extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape, which he denies.

In the bizarre hack, Barnsley Council’s website was hit on Tuesday morning and was down until 11:30am.

A council spokesman said: ‘No customer data has been lost, stolen or accessed by the attack against the council’s website and the council remained fully in control of the situation.’

Tweets from hacking groups the Philippine Cyber Eagles and Anonymous Espana claimed responsibility and added the message, ‘Free Assange or chaos is coming for you!’