Ecuador officials said on Monday that webpages for its political institutions have been the target of 40 million cyber attacks since the government ended WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s political asylum, AFP reports. The attacks—which Ecuador says began on Thursday, the day Assange was arrested and hauled out of the country’s London embassy—had “principally come from the United States, Brazil, Holland, Germany, Romania, France, Austria and the United Kingdom,” as well as from within the country, according to Telecommunications Vice Minister Patricio Real. The arrest was prompted by President Lenin Moreno’s decision to remove Assange’s diplomatic protection following accusations that the computer programmer was “spying” and interfering in the “processes of other states.” Officials also said the threats came from groups linked to Assange, noting that the foreign ministry, the central bank, the president’s office, the internal revenue service, and several ministries and universities were among the most affected.
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