Ecuador hit by over 40 million cyber attacks since Julian Assange's arrest

CAPTION: Julian Assange Ecuador officials on Monday said that webpages for its political institutions have been the target of over 40 million cyber attacks since the government ended WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s political asylum.

According to Ecuador's Telecommunications Vice Minister Patricio Real attacks, which Ecuador says began on 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.

Assange's 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 that 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.