Anonymous releases credit card, email data stolen from Stratfor

By Mike Flacy Published December 31, 2011

Image used with permission by copyright holder

According to the Washington Post, hacking activist group Anonymous has released 200 GB of data that was procured from security think tank Stratfor earlier this week. The data includes the user names, passwords and email addresses of over 850,000 Stratfor users in addition to 75,000 credit card numbers for premium users of the Stratfor service. The organization provides intelligence and analysis related to security related matters, both domestic and international, and offers this information to the U.S. government as well as the private sector. According to a statement from Anonymous, approximately six percent of the email addresses end in .mil and .gov.

Anonymous has also threatened a new attack to occur today and targets include law enforcement agencies across the United States. There’s no clear motive included within the statement released with the Stratfor data dump beyond a general dislike for government agencies. Within the statement, Anonymous wrote “All our lives we have been robbed blindly and brutalized by corrupted politicians, establishmentarians and government agencies sex shops, and now it’s time to take it back.”

Recommended Videos

Since the attack on December 24, Stratfor’s official Web presence has been taken offline and the organization stated that the relaunch of the site wouldn’t take place until 2012. Stratfor’s CEO George Friedman released a statement on the organization’s Facebook page earlier this week and agologized for the security breach. Friedman also mentioned that anyone affected by the breach would be offered a free one-year subscription to an identity protection service.

While Stratfor’s users are likely annoyed by the exposure of personal data and financial information, Stratfor officials are also concerned about the 2.7 emails stolen during the attack. Similar to other data dumps, the emails have the potential to embarrass both the organization and members of the U.S. government or military that utilize Stratfor’s services. Anonymous has yet to release the emails to the public, but the hacking group has mentioned the data in multiple public statements.

Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

Computing

How to change margins in Google Docs

Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content --- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Computing

What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app

A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.