The bank said in a statement to the Charlotte Observer, "This decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments."
As the huge American financial institution confidently declared Saturday that it was standing against the website headed by controversial figure Julian Assange, his WikiLeaks organization fired back a Twitter post urging consumers to stop doing business with Bank of America. "We ask that all people who love freedom close out their accounts at Bank of America," pleaded the WikiLeaks tweet.
Bank of America's action is certain to tempt hackers who've named themselves "Operation Payback." These supporters of WikiLeaks have been launching denial of service (DOS) attacks against institutions trying to thwart WikiLeaks for most of this month.
However, Rich Mogul, an analyst with the security firm Securosis, told Yahoo Finance, "Bank of America, I can guarantee you, is one of the top targets in the world." He added that the bank is likely to have strong defenses, but couldn't guarantee Bank of America could fend off any attack.