Jester, Self-Proclaimed Hacktivist, Claims He Took Down WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks has been hit by repeated cyber attacks in recent days, and at least one individual is thought to be at the center of those attacks: the \"Jester.\"

The Jester, known as @th3j35t3r on Twitter, posted a series of tweets on Sunday claiming he brought down WikiLeaks.org and planned to keep it down \"INDEFINITELY.\"

According to his Twitter bio, the Jester is a \"Hacktivist for good.\"

Fox News reports that in the past he has taken down a series of Islamic jihad-related websites:

Over the past year, he's developed a reputation within the tech community as a cybervigilante who targets Al Qaeda and jihadist websites, temporarily taking them offline using an attack tool called XerXes that he says he developed. He claims that one his better known targets is Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Jester is believed to be a U.S. citizen and said he's targeting WikiLeaks \"for attempting to endanger the lives of our troops and 'other assets.'\"

InformationWeek quoted him as saying, \"PS for me personally WL is a sideshow target. I am more interested in the big jihad recruiting and training sites.\"

After repeated attacks, wikileaks.org's host pulled the plug on its domain name. It also took down a second domain name today: wikileaks.ch.