Stratfor hackers publish email, password data

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCATRE7BT10Z20111230

By Jim Finkle
Reuters
Dec 30, 2011

Boston (Reuters) - Hackers affiliated with the Anonymous group published 
hundreds of thousands of email addresses belonging to subscribers of 
private intelligence analysis firm Strategic Forecasting Inc along with 
thousands of customer credit card numbers.

The lists, which were published on the Internet late on Thursday, 
included information on people including former U.S. Vice President Dan 
Quayle, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former CIA 
Director Jim Woolsey. They could not be reached for comment.

The lists included information on large numbers of people working for 
big corporations, the U.S. military and major defense contractors - 
which attackers could potentially use to target them with virus-tainted 
emails in an approach known as "spear phishing."

The Antisec faction of Anonymous disclosed last weekend that it had 
hacked into the firm, which is widely known as Stratfor and is dubbed a 
"shadow CIA" because it gathers non-classified intelligence on 
international crises.

The hackers had promised that the release of the stolen data would cause 
"mayhem." A spokesperson for the group said via Twitter that 
yet-to-be-published emails from the firm would show "Stratfor is not the 
'harmless company' it tries to paint itself as."

[...]


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