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Comment by cosmicray | Hacker News Reader

> DDoS attacks against PayPal, on the other hand, can be effective in costing them real money, for every hour they are down.

Ever heard the term 'collateral damage' ? If PayPal gets trashed (or at least significantly service impaired) that is going to hurt people way beyond PayPal. People who are trying (as I am) to keep up with the Christmas/Holiday rush, and wondering why so many orders, paid via PayPal, are not completing.

An attack on PayPal is an attack on the wider business side of the web. Basically PayPal is the guy caught in the middle of a dispute (between Wikileaks/hacker community and the US Gov/Dept of State).

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People who are trying (as I am) to keep up with the Christmas/Holiday rush

The same argument could be made against a work strike, or a mass protest, or an act of civil disobedience.

There's very few examples in history of important issues being pushed forward in a way that was convenient for everyone.

One might even make the claim that many important issues were only pushed forward specifically _because_ it was inconvenient for everyone.

the best chrismas gift you can buy this year to the world is a freedom of speak!

> that is going to hurt people way beyond PayPal

That's what I meant by broader and deeper impact. If service is impaired for merchants, a fraction of them will switch their payment provider.

I am not arguing this is the right thing to do from moral standpoint btw. This just got me thinking about DDoSes for the first time. Would be interesting to hear what the security experts think.

Basically PayPal is the guy caught in the middle of a dispute (between Wikileaks/hacker community and the US Gov/Dept of State).

Well, then they should've stayed out of it. They haven't gotten so much as an official letter (which BTW would be extremely shady since the executive branch doesn't decide what's legal and not). Even if they did, they're under no obligation to do this unless there's a court order. They got involved because of the politics, they can deal with the blowback.

I believe that this is the point of what they're doing. They're hoping that this damages paypal to the point that merchants like you move to other payment processors.

What is happening to you is horrible. I'm sorry.

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