DETROIT -- Nissan Motor Co. websites were down for a second day after an attempted cyberattack by an Anonymous-linked hacker protesting Japanese whaling.

Nissan shut down its global corporate sites and its Japanese domestic market site for parts of Wednesday and today, after its Internet administrators detected an attempted denial-of-service attack. The sites were being bombarded with visits in an attempt to block other users. Nissan’s U.S. site and global media site were functioning normally.

Nissan took sites offline to prevent possible leaks of customer or corporate data.

“Customer privacy and security is of utmost importance, and we take any potential threat to our information systems seriously,” Nissan spokesman David Reuter said in a statement.

The attack was apparently launched by someone associated with the international hacktivist group Anonymous and an anti-whaling campaign propagated over Twitter through #OpWhales and #OpKillingBay. News reports said Nissan was hit as part of a wider attack on other Japanese websites, including the official site of the country’s prime minister.

It did not appear to be a campaign officially sanctioned by Anonymous.

Japan has a long tradition of hunting whales, and its fisheries agency continues to do so today under a scientific research program.

Wrangling about whaling is beyond the company’s purview, Nissan said.

“We do not comment or take a stance on topics which we view as outside the scope of our business,” Reuter said.

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