Hackers breach Stratfor Global Intelligence Service website
On Sunday, the `Anonymous' group of hackers claimed the responsibility of the recent hack of the website of a US-based research think tank, the Stratfor Global Intelligence Service. The attack involved the pilfering of the personal data - including the credit card numbers - of several Stratfor clients.
According to the information shared by one of the hackers of the `Anonymous' group, the main objective behind the breach of the Stratfor website was to steal funds from the accounts of the Stratfor clients and give the money as donations for Christmas.
With some of the Stratfor clients having confirmed that there had been some unauthorized transactions connected with their credit cards, it has been reported that the hackers apparently extracted details pertaining to over 4,000 credit card numbers, passwords and home addresses. In addition, the hacking group also revealed that it had information for approximately 90,000 credit card accounts.
The hack is a substantial one, given the fact that the entities listed as the clients of the Stratfor security think tank include the likes of Bank of America, the Defense Department, Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Doctors Without Borders, as well as the United Nations.
Meanwhile, acknowledging that the Stratfor website had been hacked, the Austin, Texas-based company's CEO George Friedman said in a Sunday morning e-mail to clients: "We have reason to believe that the names of our corporate subscribers have been posted on other Web sites. We are diligently investigating the extent to which subscriber information may have been obtained."
