'Operation Payback' Epic Fail? Visa, Sarah Palin PAC Fend Off Cyberattacks

(Dec. 8) -- So this is the big payback?

A shadowy network of computer hacker activists ("hacktivists," for short) pressed forth with a series of cyberattacks on Visa, MasterCard and Sarah Palin, in a show of solidarity with Julian Assange's whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.

While the specter of a secret band of techno whiz-kids banding together to wreak havoc on any person or company found to have spoken harshly about WikiLeaks (such as Palin) or attempted to try to choke the site of its financial lifeblood (such as Visa/MasterCard) would seem the stuff of a very dark Hollywood movie, today's events seem to have played out a tad less dramatically.

Reports on the effectiveness of the early stages of "Operation Payback" have it that two of the intended targets claim they have not suffered much at all.

First, while there was what was described as "disruption" at Visa.com, the credit card company told NBC News that none of its transactions had been effected, and that all account data was safe. Similar disruption was also experience at MasterCard's site earlier in the day, but no real damage was done.

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Second, the website of Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC.com, likewise fended off hacker attacks today, but remained in business, ABC News' Jake Tapper reported. As for Palin herself, Tapper says that the presumptive candidate for president has experienced some credit card difficulties.

Forcing Palin to hold off on using her charge cards or making a call to order new ones hardly counts as much revenge, and one wonders if these hacktivists had not heard of David Kernell, the guy who was recently sentenced to one year behind bars for figuring out Palin's e-mail password and nosing around her account.

Still, maybe the hacktivists have more tricks up their sleeves. If so, however, they'll have to hatch their plans without the aid of Twitter or Facebook, both of which blocked Operation Payback accounts this evening.

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