Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Why Stratfor was Really Hacked

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. For this and other reasons, operations have been conducted against Booz Allen Hamilton, Unveillance, NATO, and other relevant institutions. The bulk of what we've uncovered thus far may be reviewed at a wiki maintained by my group Project PM, echelon2.org. Although Stratfor is not necessarily among the parties at fault in the larger movement against transparency and individual liberty, it has long been a "subject of interest" in our necessary investigation. The e-mails obtained before Christmas Day will vastly improve our ability to continue that investigation and thereby bring to light other instances of corruption, crime, and deception on the part of certain powerful actors based in the U.S. and elsewhere. Unlike the various agents of the U.S. Government, the hacking team that obtained this information did not break down the doors of the target, point guns at children, and shoot down any dogs that might have been present; Anonymous does not resort to SWAT tactics, and this is simply one of many attributes that separate the movement from the governments that have sought to end our campaign and imprison our participants. Of course, such points as these will not prevent our movement from being subjected to harsher scrutiny than is given to those governments which are largely forgiven their more intrusive tactics by virtue of their status as de facto holders of power in a world that has long been governed in accordance with the dictate that might makes right. Incidentally, many of us are more than happy to proceed according to that amoral dictate if we find it to be necessary. And, increasingly, we have found it to be so. Barrett Brown Project PM irc.project-pm.org ORIGINALLY POSTED TO BARRETTBROWN ON MON DEC 26, 2011 AT 08:38 PM PST. ALSO REPUBLISHED BY ANONYMOUS DKOS.

6 comments:

  1. VAA, I don't get what the author is trying to say above. Either you respect personal liberty and privacy or you don't. Anonymous doesn't seem to. I don't understand the point of what Anonymous is trying to do.

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  2. Maybe what they ARE saying is that these institutions and those of like minds, i.e., the big banks, do not respect privacy, personal liberty, and, apparently when you really look at their tactics, people of modest means holding onto their homes and possessions.  They play by these rules all of the time, but with the governments apparent support and protection.

    Please re-read the last one quarter of the article.

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  3. "<span>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, </span>

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  4. These are very complex subjects. I am more worried about data collected by Google, Facebook, Amazon, MSFT [through Bing and Windows mobile], Yahoo, and Wireless Carriers than banks or governments.

    We need serious thought and scholarships to break down the pros and cons from all angles. Maybe consumers should be paid by data collectors for their behavior record related information.

    There is a lot of extremely fascinating product development going in in analyzing "Big Data" feeds and stocks. Analytics and Business Intelligence are evolving rapidly. As is security related software.

    It is urgent that there be more analysis of these issues. The FCC and other major international standards and regulatory bodies have many important decisions to make.

    This said, I think anonymous should respect the privacy of individual e-mails.

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  5. Buh, you're responding to a person who's unlikely to understand what you're saying. A person so dumb he, the other day, was asking why the Occupty Wall streeters were protesting? Is it because the the US is becoming socialist? He, of course, wasn't joking!

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  6. on why Stratfor was hacked - what if it was mossad agents? Stratfor had been putting out articles stating america was likely to move away from firm commitment to israel for geopolitical reasons and other than that, all the organisation was doing was presenting a less partisan/ideologically tained perspective of world powers and world events.

    it is easy for anyone to hack under the name of anonymous and this would explain why they completely buried the organisation, as opposed to just stealing its information. the anon posts on why they destroyed Stratfor make it out to be some kind of monster that it never was..

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