MasterCard's website was shut down Wednesday because of a cyberattack, though the use of plastic was unaffected, the company said. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- MasterCard's corporate website was inaccessible because of an apparent cyberattack Wednesday, but the credit card company said that its cards are still functioning.
A tweet on Twitter indicated a possible tie to a recent MasterCard move against WikiLeaks, the website that recently released thousands of secret U.S. State Department documents, but that could not be confirmed.
"The issue appears to be the result of a concentrated effort to flood our corporate website with traffic and slow access," said company spokesman James Issokson, in a prepared statement. "We are working to restore normal service levels."
Issokson said the hack attack does not affect the use of credit cards or financial security.
Supporters of WikiLeaks were claiming to have launched the cyberattack in retaliation for MasterCard's (MA, Fortune 500) refusal to process payments related to WikiLeaks.
Issokson wouldn't comment on allegations of who was behind the attack. But on Tuesday, MasterCard said it was "working to suspend the acceptance of MasterCard cards on WikiLeaks."
On Twitter, a post from a handle called @Anon_Operation took responsibility for the attacks, tweeting about its so-called Operation Payback: "We are glad to tell you that [Mastercard.com] is down and it's confirmed. Operation: Payback (is a bitch!)"
There was no immediate confirmation that whoever was behind the handle was responsible for the attack.
The website for PayPal was also the subject of an "attempted DDoS [denial-of-service] attack" in recent days, though the site remained operational, according to PayPal spokeswoman Charlotte Hill.
"These attacks have at times slowed the website itself down, but have not significantly impacted payments," she said.
Hill confirmed that this happened after PayPal denied service to WikiLeaks.
PostFinance, a Swiss bank, also had problems with its website on Tuesday, when it announced that the site was "overloaded owing to a multitude of online enquiries."
This happened the day after PostFinance announced that it closed the account of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for having "provided false information regarding his place of residence when opening the account."
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