Hackers have abandoned their attempts to sabotage Amazon.com after the etail giant’s defences proved impregnable.

Hacker group Anonymous, which has targeted payment companies such as MasterCard and Visa over the last few days in protest at the companies’ refusal to process payments to whistleblower site WikiLeaks, announced yesterday afternoon that it would launch an assault against Amazon.

However the group later announced on Twitter that it was giving up its attack after the failure of its early efforts. Amazon had been targeted because it had withdrawn hosting from WikiLeaks’ site.

Amazon chiefs will be pleased at the effectiveness of its defences, particularly in the light of the embarrassment caused to such as big name as MasterCard which was caught off guard by the cyber-raiders.

The saboteurs intend to continue attacking MasterCard, PayPal and Visa.