The band of hackers known as Anonymous has just released the names, email addresses, and passwords for around 860,000 users of Stratfor, a security think tank, as well as 75,000 credit card numbers belonging to Stratfor's paying customers. The initial digital theft took place on Dec. 24, reports the Washington Post. Stratfor's website has been shut down since then.
Stratfor (short for Strategic Forecasting) is seen in some camps as a "shadow CIA," according to Reuters, and the list released by the Anonymous faction known as Antisec appears to include employees of defense contractors, the military, and big corporations. The Pentagon says no sensitive data appears to have been compromised. Anonymous is warning of a new attack on "law enforcement targets" on New Year’s Eve. (More Anonymous stories.)