Representatives from the global intelligence company Stratfor awoke to find a lump of coal in their stockings this morning—or, more specifically, their clients's credit card information strewn across the Web.
The incident is the latest cyber attack being claimed by members of the hacktivist group Anonymous, one that allegedly resulted in the publishing of nearly 4,000 credit card numbers, site passwords, and home addresses for some of the (formerly) confidential clients of the U.S.-based security firm.
The goal? The attackers indicated they were planning to use the stolen credit card information (allegedly stored as unencrypted text) to amass a sum of $1 million that could then be given to various charities for the holiday season. Images posted alongside the hack's alleged Pastebin-based press release show that some of these charity donations are already underway.
The attackers were also hoping to secure the release of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army soldier who just wrapped up pretrial proceedings this past week related to his alleged involvement in the leak of hundreds of thousands of confidential military documents. Manning is charged with 22 different counts related to the various leaks, and it's expected that he'll face a full court-martial in 2012—with the possibility of a life sentence, if convicted.
"We hereby ask that Bradley Manning be given a delicious meal this Lulzxmas, and no, not the 'holiday special' in the prison chow hall. We want him out on the streets at a fancy restaurant of his choosing, and we want this to happen in less than five hours," reads the statement by the alleged Stratfor attackers.
However, there appears to be a bit of contention among the ranks of Anonymous, as the aforementioned press release conflicts with another release—allegedly from the "official faction" representing Anonymous—detailing that the Stratfor attack has nothing to do with the organization as a whole.
"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," reads the Pastebin release.
"This hack is most definitely not the work of Anonymous," it adds.
No matter who represents Anonymous officially, the potential implications of the attack remain: The information already made public by the Stratfor hackers is allegedly just a subset of the 200GB of data allegedly stolen in the attack.
"Stratfor and I take this incident very seriously. Stratfor's relationship with its members and, in particular, the confidentiality of their subscriber information, are very important to Stratfor and me," reads a message posted to the Stratfor Facebook page by CEO George Friedman. "We are working closely with law enforcement in their investigation and will assist them with the identification of the individual(s) who are responsible."
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