December 25, 2011, 4:50PM
Anonymous Hacks Security Think Tank STRATFOR
7 CommentsHackers with Anonymous have struck a well-known security and intelligence think tank based in Texas and made off with some 200 GB of credit card data and other information.
Members of the loosely-affiliated collective announced the attack on STRATFOR on Twitter. Among the items reportedly pilfered is STRATFOR’s closely-guarded client list, which includes organizations such as the U.S. Army. The credit card details were stored in clear text, members of the group claimed.
In an email to STRATFOR members viewed by Threatpost, STRATFOR CEO George Friedman acknowledged the company's Website had been attacked and said that STRATFOR’s servers and email had been suspended as a result.
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“We have reason to believe that the names of our corporate subscribers have been [posted] on other web sites,” Friedman states. “We are diligently investigating the extent to which subscriber information may have been obtained.”
“Stratfor and I take this incident very seriously,” he continued. “Stratfor's relationship with its members and, in particular, the confidentiality of their subscriber information, are very important to Stratfor and me. We are working closely with law enforcement in their investigation and will assist them with the identification of the individual(s) who are responsible.”
As of publication, the Website for STRATFOR displayed a message stating the site was undergoing maintenance.
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Comments
The real pay day in this high profile hacking is the account name and password information.
Expect to see that information being used to 'attempt' to gain access to other accounts of those 'high profile' members. Let us hope that these users were clever enough to use alternative passwords to their accounts on their employers networks.
Security Think Tank... isn't that hilariously ironic.
I'll agree with you on "Security Think Tank" hehe
Stratfor is a paranoid outfit from Texas which, unfortunately, is read by the politically powerful. Paranoia leads to fear, repression, war, and just plain bad judgment.
Of course, now they actually have something real to be paranoid about ;')
I've always said they should give Texas back to Mexico.
Alternative passwords - not likely. People are lazy and low-level admin or civil service employees are vastly overworked. They probably have One PW for everything, including their own email.
Anonymous has made a post on pastebin denouncing they are responsible for the attack. The link is located on the Wikipedia Stratfor page.