Stratfor: Private Clients List Not Disclosed by Anonymous

On Christmas eve we learned that Anonymous managed to breach the systems belonging to private intelligence company Stratfor, obtaining a few hundred gigabytes of information, including the organization’s A client list. George Friedman, Stratfor’s CEO, came forward with a statement to deny this.

“We have learned that Stratfor's web site was hacked by an unauthorized party. As a result of this incident the operation of Stratfor's servers and email have been suspended,” Friedman wrote on Sunday on the firm’s official Facebook page.

After members of Anonymous started disclosing some of the information they obtained from their servers, the CEO wrote another statement, denying some of the allegations, but also to advise customers on how to protect their bank accounts.

“We have reason to believe that your personal and credit card data could have been included in the information that was illegally obtained and disclosed. Also publicly released was a list of our members which the unauthorized party claimed to be Stratfor's "private clients,” he said.

“Contrary to this assertion the disclosure was merely a list of some of the members that have purchased our publications and does not comprise a list of individuals or entities that have a relationship with Stratfor beyond their purchase of our subscription-based publications.”

While this may be true, it’s of little importance if the private client list is out there or not, except maybe for the clients involved.

The more worrying fact is that Friedman’s statement, along with his safety recommendations, makes us believe that all the credit card information is really in the possession of Anonymous.

This incident is far from being over, especially since almost daily hackers behind the AntiSec movement come forward with promises to reveal even more data they’re currently sitting on.

At the time of writing, Stratfor’s official website is still down for maintenance.