Anonymous Goes after Austin, TX based STRATFOR

[elfismiles]

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government
26 Dec 2011
http://www.legitgov.org
All links are here:
http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

...

'Anonymous' hackers hit US security firm Stratfor 25 Dec 2011 The activist hacker group Anonymous says it has stolen thousands of emails, passwords and credit card details from a US-based security think-tank. The hackers claim they were able to obtain the information because the company, Stratfor, did not encrypt it. They say Stratfor's clients include the US defence department, law enforcement agencies and media organisations. The Austin-based company says it has suspended the operation on its servers and email.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16330396

'Anonymous' claims to have hacked U.S.-based security think tank --Hackers promised a week full of Christmas-inspired assaults 25 Dec 2011 Hackers on Sunday claimed to have stolen a raft of e-mails and credit card data from U.S.-based security think tank Stratfor, promising it was just the start of a weeklong Christmas-inspired assault on a long list of targets. Members of the loose-knit hacking movement known as "Anonymous" posted a link on Twitter to what they said was Stratfor's tightly-guarded, confidential client list. Among those on the list: The U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and the Miami Police Department. [Awesome!]
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/a ... e-1.996733

[MinM]

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=33717

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharmine-narwani/stratfor-challenges-narra_b_1158710.html

Stratfor Challenges Narratives on Syria

Posted: 12/19/11 03:47 PM ET

Since the first public protests broke out in Syria last March, the narratives about the Syrian crisis have stayed fairly true to the theme of all the Arab Revolts. An authoritarian ruler out to crush peaceful opposition to his regime opens fire on civilians and the number of protestors skyrockets as the body count mounts...

But we are now entering the tenth month of this particular violent revolt - even Libya with its full-fledged civil war didn't take so long. So what gives?

According to the Texas-based geopolitical risk analysis group Stratfor which released an eyebrow-raising piece on Syrian opposition propaganda efforts last week, "most of the opposition's more serious claims have turned out to be grossly exaggerated or simply untrue, thereby revealing more about the opposition's weaknesses than the level of instability inside the Syrian regime."

This is important for two reasons. Firstly, it may be the first time a mainstream US-based intelligence-gathering firm openly questions the existing narrative on Syria. Secondly, Stratfor's findings begs the question: what are we basing our policy initiatives on if our underlying assumptions are inaccurate?

http://ghostofvanzetti.net/blog/?p=695

Antisec / Anonymous Demolishes Million Dollar Whitehat Security firm @ http://www.stratfor.com
Posted on December 24, 2011

Just when you think they couldn’t surprise and delight, Anonymous & Antisec deliver… On the eve of Christmas LulzXmas News broke today of a massive hack by Antisec forces of whitehat security firm stratfor. As of this post, the stratfor.com site is unavailable but those interested can view a mirror of the deface. Anonymous hackers posted this youtube video at the top of the defaced page:

Could this be payback for 'challenging the narrative on Syria'? I'm not suggesting that Anonymous is a CIA spook org., but it could be used by them such as they have in the past been known to use the mafia to carry out paybacks.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=33717

Just by it's very nature it would seem to be fairly susceptible to being co-opted, and/or usurped...

viewtopic.php?p=384299#p384299

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=33759

[barracuda]

FWIW:

Stratfor, an organization with deep CIA and other US Intelligence ties, founded and run by a Jewish-American who was last mentioned at RI as the subject of a thread I started, named: Yet Another Psycho With a Modest Proposal.

[Twyla LaSarc]

A few of the comments are interesting as well.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/anonymous ... ere-hacked

Barrett Brown, who has taken on the (seemingly lucrative) role of the public face of hacker group Anonymous, best known recently for breaking into Stratfor's servers, speaks about the logic behind the hacking of 2.7 million email accounts which will likely very soon be made public, in addition to the tens of thousands of credit card numbers and full client details (including home addresses) of Stratfor clients that Anonymous has already released.

From pastebin:

In the wake of the recent operation by which Stratfor's servers were compromised, much of the media has focused on the fact that some participants in the attack chose to use obtained customer credit card numbers to make donations to charitable causes. Although this aspect of the operation is indeed newsworthy, and, like all things, should be scrutinized and criticized as necessary, the original purpose and ultimate consequence of the operation has been largely ignored.


Stratfor was not breached in order to obtain customer credit card numbers, which the hackers in question could not have expected to be as easily obtainable as they were. Rather, the operation was pursued in order to obtain the 2.7 million e-mails that exist on the firm's servers. This wealth of data includes correspondence with untold thousands of contacts
who have spoken to Stratfor's employees off the record over more than a decade. Many of those contacts work for major corporations within the intelligence and military contracting sectors, government agencies, and other institutions for which Anonymous and associated parties have developed an interest since February of 2011, when another hack against the intelligence contractor/security firm HBGary revealed, among many other things, a widespread conspiracy by the Justice Department, Bank of America, and other parties to attack and discredit Wikileaks and other activist groups. Since that time, many of us in the movement have dedicated our lives to investigating this state-corporate alliance against the free information movement.

[eyeno]

In the wake of the recent operation by which Stratfor's servers were compromised, much of the media has focused on the fact that some participants in the attack chose to use obtained customer credit card numbers to make donations to charitable causes. Although this aspect of the operation is indeed newsworthy, and, like all things, should be scrutinized and criticized as necessary, the original purpose and ultimate consequence of the operation has been largely ignored.

So, a group dedicated to internet freedom steals credit card numbers, which is arguably the number one activity TPTB would use to clamp down on the internet and deny internet freedom to the masses. Does this strike anyone else as either stupid or a false flag type activity?

I'm not saying anonymous is an organization set up by the spooks. I"m not saying its a spook tool for false flag action to curtain internet freedom. I have no way of knowing for sure.

I am saying that if Anonymous is legit the spooks don't even have to bother building their own false flag tool, because if Anonymous is ripping off credit card numbers, they are giving the spooks every legit reason they would ever need to clamp down on the internet and institute their "Trusted Internet I.D." program, SOPA, and any other draconian program the spooks can think of.

Thanx a lot Anonymous, you dumb bastards...

[Nordic]

Eyeno, Anonymous has denied that they were the ones whop did this.

Stratfor had the gal to go against the Conventional Wisdom (I.e. the propaganda "narrative") on Syria, and hence were punished by whoever their big Daddy is.

At the same time they did something of a false flag they could blame on Anonymous.

[psynapz]

Anonymous has denied that they were the ones who did this.

Link?

[cptmarginal]

Anonymous has denied that they were the ones who did this.

Link?

Check out the comments on that link Twyla posted above for some interesting (unverifiable) talk on this.

Sometimes the best way to find out what is going on with Anonymous is to do a Twitter search, though. I just found this on there: "Stratfor hack NOT Anonymous THE STRATFOR HACK IS NOT THE WORK OF ANONYMOUS" ...but really don't know what to believe regarding them. Invisible shadow war going down on the internets; I'm hoping for the best

[jingofever]

Why are people buying geopolitical analysis from the man who wrote "The Coming War With Japan"? Does anybody know Stratfor's prediction track record?

[justdrew]

it's just like these recent "hacks" they say are traced back to China, and it's "clear" and "for sure" it's Chinese government. Nonsense. Complete nonsense. These supposed Chinese government hackers are so good they can break into these sites, but are too stupid to use proxies through other countries? It's absurd. It's totally possible there's compromised bot nets owning millions of PCs in China, so while I'm sure the obvious IPs they detected may indeed be located in China, that tells us nothing about who's controlling the machines those IPs belong to.

[cptmarginal]

Anonymous Faction Hacks Intelligence Analysis Firm

A group calling itself Antisec and claiming to be part of Anonymous said on the message site Pastebin that it had posted 4,000 credit cards, passwords and home addresses of Stratfor's private client list, which includes the U.S. Defense Department, Army, Air Force, law enforcement, major security contractors and technology firms, including Apple and Microsoft, according to media reports. Friedman denied the group had stolen information on Stratfor's private clients, saying the data applied to some members that had purchased the firm's publications.

How much information was stolen is not clear. Stratfor has declined to discuss the hack in detail, because it is under investigation by law enforcement. Antisec has said it has much more data that will be released in the future, including 2.7 million emails. Security firm F-Secure reported Monday that the group posted a second list of more than 13,000 credit card numbers. The hackers claim all the information taken was unencrypted, which would be an embarrassment for Stratfor, if true.

Giving a Robin Hood twist to the break in, the hackers posted receipts of donations made to charities using Stratfor members' credit cards. Recipients included the Red Cross, Care, Save The Children and African Child Foundation. While stealing from the rich to give to the poor may sound benevolent, the stunt may end up costing the charities. Unauthorized charges usually result in a chargeback by credit card companies.

"In some cases, charities could be hit with penalties," Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for security vendor F-Secure, said Monday in the company's blog. "At the very least, they will lose time and money in handling the chargebacks."

Besides making charity contributions, the hackers called for the release of Bradley Manning, the disaffected Army soldier accused of providing reams of classified information to whistleblower site WikiLeaks.

The hackers' claim of being part of Anonymous was challenged Sunday. In a press release posted on Pastebin, a group claiming to be the real Anonymous denied any involvement in the Stratfor hack. "This hack is most definitely not the work of Anonymous," the release said.

Anonymous is not believed to be a single group of hackers, but a loose alliance of many groups. The organization has taken credit for many hacks, including some retaliatory attacks on companies Anonymous deemed as enemies of WikiLeaks. In August, Anonymous took credit for defacing the Syrian Ministry of Defense Web site in retaliation for the government crackdown on protesters.

Press Release: Stratfor hack NOT Anonymous

Emergency Christmas Anonymous Press Release
-------------------------------------------
12/25/2011

THE STRATFOR HACK IS NOT THE WORK OF ANONYMOUS

Stratfor is an open source intelligence agency, publishing daily reports on data collected from the open internet. Hackers claiming to be Anonymous have distorted this truth in order to further their hidden agenda, and some Anons have taken the bait.

The leaked client list represents subscribers to a daily publication which is the primary service of Stratfor. Stratfor analysts are widely considered to be extremely unbiased. Anonymous does not attack media sources. In this excerpt from Time, there is a brief description of how Stratfor analysts uncovered a possible US backed coup in Iraq preceding the US invasion.

"In the past month Stratfor has drawn attention to a carefully assembled open-source report that asserted that last month's attack on Iraq wasn't intended just to punish Saddam Hussein for blowing off U.N. weapons inspectors. By sorting through thousands of pieces of publicly available data--from Middle East newspapers to Iraqi-dissident news--Stratfor analysts developed a theory that the attacks were actually designed to mask a failed U.S.-backed coup. In two striking, contrarian intelligence briefs released on the Internet on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, Stratfor argued that Saddam's lightning restructuring of the Iraqi military, followed by executions of the army's Third Corps commanders, was evidence that the coup had been suppressed. Predictably, U.S. officials said the report was wrong."

Stratfor has been purposefully misrepresented by these so-called Anons and portrayed in false light as a company which engages in activity similar to HBGary. Sabu and his crew are nothing more than opportunistic attention whores who are possibly agent provocateurs. As a media source, Stratfor's work is protected by the freedom of press, a principle which Anonymous values greatly.

This hack is most definitely not the work of Anonymous.

We are Anonymous
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us

I cannot speak to the veracity of anything submitted to Pastebin without some corroboration, so take it for what it's worth

[Nordic]

Thanks, sorry, I thought I'd posted the link of anonymous' denial upthread but I did so in a different thread. My confusion. Thanks for finding it and posting it.

I think anonymous is telling the truth that it wasn't them. My two cents.

[Stephen Morgan]

What happened to Anonymous being and anarchic non-hierarchical body? Surely anyone claiming to be anon is anon. This op was certainly accepted by the AnonOps twitter feed. Does pastebin supercede? And using villain's plastic to give to charity at Christmas doesn't seem likely to lead to bad publicity, Mr False Flag.

[Gnomad]

Anonymous is by definition anonymous, so anyone can claim they were Anonymous.
It is both a blessing and, when anonymous is not Anonymous, possibly a curse.
Over here someone claiming to be Anonymous, stole some regular peoples logins and email addresses from a few regular forums / websites, and posted them online. Anonymous said it wasn't them, but some other, anonymous anonymouses.

So it could really be just about anyone...

On the other hand there are few things cooler than stealing money from intel operatives or spooks and donating it to charity. The first thing a serious government does to some org like Wikileaks is steal their money, so it is just fitting.

[Ben D]

Apparently it's an anonymous group called Antisac who is responsible...

Stratfor delays website launch after hack attack

Reuters – 4 hrs ago

(Reuters) - Private intelligence analysis firm Strategic Forecasting Inc., which was attacked by online hackers at the weekend, said in a letter to free subscribers that it has decided to delay the launching of its website by about a week.

The website of Strategic Forecasting, also known as Stratfor, has been offline for several days following the hacking attack.
"As part of our ongoing investigation, we have also decided to delay the launching of our website until a thorough review and adjustment by outside experts can be completed," Stratfor said in an email.

The firm had earlier disclosed that its website had been hacked and that some information about its corporate subscribers had been made public.

The hacking group known as Antisec has claimed responsibility for the attack and promised to cause "mayhem" by releasing stolen documents.

"An unauthorized party illegally obtained and disclosed personally identifiable information and related credit card data of some of our paying subscribers," Stratfor said in the email.
Stratfor also said in its letter that it would offer identity theft protection and monitoring services to affected subscribers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_AntiSec

Operation AntiSec

Operation Anti-Security, also referred to as Operation AntiSec or #AntiSec, is a series of hacking attacks performed by members of hacking group LulzSec, the group Anonymous, and others inspired by the announcement of the operation. LulzSec performed the earliest attacks of the operation, with the first against the Serious Organised Crime Agency on 20 June 2011. Soon after, the group released information taken from the servers of the Arizona Department of Public Safety; Anonymous would later release information from the same agency two more times. An offshoot of the group calling themselves LulzSecBrazil launched attacks on numerous websites belonging to the Government of Brazil and the energy company Petrobras. LulzSec claimed to retire as a group, but on 22 June they reconvened to hack into the websites of British newspapers The Sun and The Times, posting a fake news story of the death of the publication's owner Rupert Murdoch.

Anonymous released their first cache of the operation on 27 June 2011, taken from an anti-cyberterrorism program run by the United States Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency. They continued attacks on the Arizona government. They also launched attacks against the Brazilian government, Government of Zimbabwe, the Municipality of Mosman, and the Government of Tunisia. Their most recent attacks have been against large corporations, NATO, and various United States law enforcement websites. Anonymous has used the stolen credit card numbers of police officers to make unauthorized donations to various causes. Others have also committed hacks in the name of the operation, including a hack into the Fox News Twitter account to post a false news story about the assassination of President of the United States Barack Obama and attacks on the websites of government entities in various countries. The groups involved have published sensitive government and corporate information, as well as the email addresses, names, and social security numbers, and credit card numbers of website users.

Law enforcement has launched investigations into many of the attacks committed as part of Operation AntiSec. At least seven arrests have been made in connection to activities related to the operation, including the arrests of two purported LulzSec members, a man who provided LulzSec with security vulnerability information, and four alleged members of AntiSec NL, a group inspired by the operation.