- NEW: MasterCard website hit by cyberattack
- Rudd says U.S. personnel are to blame for the documents' release
- He says it raises questions about the "adequacy" of U.S. security
- The Australian prime minister has said WikiLeaks is "grossly irresponsible"
London (CNN) -- The MasterCard website suffered a cyberattack apparently linked to the WikiLeaks scandal Wednesday, as Australia's foreign minister blamed the United States for WikiLeaks' massive leak of diplomatic cables and military information.
A MasterCard spokesman would not comment on who was behind the cyberattack -- which left the corporate website inaccessible but did not affect the use of its cards -- but various news agencies reported supporters of WikiLeaks were responsible, and a Twitter account sympathetic to WikiLeaks claimed responsibility.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, meanwhile, said the people who originally leaked the documents -- not WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange -- are legally liable, and he told Reuters news agency the leaks raised questions about the "adequacy" of U.S. security.
"I have been pretty consistent about where the core responsibility lies in this entire matter and that lies with the release of an unauthorized nature of this material by U.S. personnel," Rudd told Reuters.
"Mr. Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorized release of 250,000 documents from the U.S. diplomatic communications network," Rudd told the agency. "The Americans are responsible for that."
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Lawyer: WikiLeak document exaggerated Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard took a different tack this week, calling WikiLeaks "grossly irresponsible" for distributing the documents. The "foundation stone is an illegal act that certainly breached the laws of the United States of America," she said.
he WikiLeaks website began posting the secret diplomatic cables online November 28. The documents reveal private communications between U.S. diplomats and the State Department about a host of world leaders and affairs and have provoked outrage in the United States and elsewhere.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the cables put national security at risk, comments echoed by a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron. Supporters of WikiLeaks say the cables reveal information the public has a right to know.
WikiLeaks is now the subject of a U.S. criminal investigation, and Holder said he has authorized "significant" actions as part of the probe, though he refused to say what they are.
No one has been charged in the U.S. investigation of the leaked cables, but a U.S. Army private is a prime suspect in previous leaks by WikiLeaks. Bradley Manning has been charged with leaking U.S. military video of a 2007 helicopter strike in Iraq that killed two Reuters journalists as well as removing classified information from military computers.
Assange, a 39-year-old Australian national, was in a London jail Wednesday after his arrest on a warrant unrelated to the WikiLeaks affair.
Swedish authorities had requested his arrest so they can question Assange about sex-crime charges connected to two incidents in August. A London judge Tuesday denied Assange bail, saying he posed a flight risk, and the court is now deciding whether to extradite him to Sweden.
Assange has not been charged in the case and is expected to fight any extradition order. He has said the charges are part of an effort to smear his reputation.
The Australian High Commission in London said Tuesday it is providing consular assistance to Assange. Rudd said his responsibility as foreign minister is to ensure Assange is treated the same as any other Australian in legal difficulties.
"He has, in my view, complete entitlement of presumption of innocence before the law, and our job as the Australian government is to ensure that he has full access to normal consular and legal services that we would seek to provide to any Australian in these sorts of difficulties in any country around the world," Rudd told Reuters.
Many of the leaked cables have revealed embarrassing assessments by U.S. diplomats of their foreign hosts.
In one such revelation Wednesday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported the U.S. Embassy regards Rudd as an "abrasive, impulsive 'control freak' who presided over a series of foreign policy blunders during his time as prime minister."
The cable was sent by the U.S. Embassy in Canberra to the U.S. secretary of state, according to the Herald, which did not publish the full text of the document.
Additional cables show that initially favorable U.S. impressions of Rudd were quickly replaced by criticism of his micro-management and mishandling of diplomacy as he focused on media opportunities, the Herald said.
Other revelations have exposed top-secret assessments of international affairs, such as another cable in which Rudd proposed deploying force against China if diplomacy failed.
The cable, from March 2009, was sent by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to several embassies and consulates and recounted her meeting with Rudd in Washington.
"Calling himself 'a brutal realist on China,' Rudd argued for 'multilateral engagement with bilateral vigor' -- integrating China effectively into the international community and allowing it to demonstrate greater responsibility, all while also preparing to deploy force if everything goes wrong," the cable read.
"Rudd said the Australian intelligence community keeps a close watch on China's military modernization, and indicated the forthcoming Australian Defence White Paper's focus on naval capability is a response to China's growing ability to project force," it continued.
Various news agencies reported Wednesday that supporters of WikiLeaks were behind a cyberattack against MasterCard in retaliation for the credit card company's refusal to process payments from WikiLeaks.
MasterCard's corporate website was inaccessible because of a cyberattack Wednesday, but the credit card company said its cards were still functioning.
On Tuesday, MasterCard said it was working to suspend the acceptance of its cards on WikiLeaks, but company spokesman James Issokson wouldn't comment Wednesday on allegations of who was behind the attack.
A Twitter posting from someone called @Anon_Operation took responsibility for the attacks, calling it "Operation: Payback," but their claim of responsibility could not immediately be confirmed.
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