WikiLeaks backlash all bark, no bite: experts

Over the past week, the Internet has rung with a call to virtual arms by “Anonymous,” a band of computer hackers that has targeted websites of Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and others for cutting off WikiLeaks access to funds.

“The war is on,” the group has proclaimed, vowing to attack any entity with an “anti-WikiLeas agenda.”

But the campaign has fallen short of a real cyber war, said James Lewis, a specialist in cybersecurity at the Center for International and Strategic Studies, a Washington think tank.

“I would say that a war involves damage and destruction. This is more like a noisy political demonstration, like a mob surrounding a bank and refusing to let anyone in or out. It’s not war,” he said.

“For me, this is political theater, kabuki — entertaining and perhaps influential, but much less than war.”