The WikiLeaks website crashed Tuesday in an apparent cyberattack after the accelerated publication of tens of thousands of once-secret State Department cables by the anti-secrecy organization raised new concerns about the exposure of confidential U.S. embassy sources.

  This week, WikiLeaks editor and self-proclaimed freedom of information crusader Julian Assange is getting a lesson in irony: there has been a leak at WikiLeaks. German paper Der Freitag claims it has uncovered a batch of online unredacted diplomatic cables that came from WikiLeaks.

In the face of continued attacks on federal agencies and contractors such as Booz Allen Hamilton and IRC Federal that do highly sensitive security work for the U.S. government, Sen. John McCain has asked Senate leaders to appoint a select committee to look into the attacks and data leaks that have plagued Washington throughout 2011.

Anonymous, the international cyberactivist network, has announced the release of 90,000 military email logins which its members obtained in one of the biggest-ever hacking operations.

Despite countless WikiLeaks copycats popping up since the secret-spilling site first dumped its cache of State Department cables last year, the new generation of leaking sites has produced few WikiLeaks-sized scoops. So instead of waiting for insider whistleblowers, the hacker movement Anonymous hopes that a few outside intruders might start the leaks flowing.

These Anonymous attacks are like riding a bull, they can change wildly and at a moment’s notice”

They got their start years ago as cyberpranksters, an online community of tech-savvy kids more interested in making mischief than political statements.

The attacks came after the Anonymous group of hackers pledged to pursue firms that have withdrawn services from Wikileaks.

Mr Rudd said he did not “give a damn” about criticism of him in the cables.

You had to know something interesting would come out of the quarter million diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks just, well, leaked late on Sunday, and the New York Times has picked out a doozie for us.