Stratfor email leaks

Stratfor is an American geopolitics publisher and consultancy founded in 1995. Stratfor's business model is to provide individual and enterprise subscriptions to Stratfor Worldview, its online publication, and to perform intelligence gathering for corporate clients. The focus of Stratfor's content is security issues and analyzing geopolitical risk.


 * Stratfor 14 June 1999

Leak
On December 24, 2011, Stratfor's website was hacked. Anonymous claimed responsibility, and also posted data they claim was taken from Stratfor, including credit card details, passwords, and addresses of Stratfor clients. Their email system may have also been compromised.

WikiLeaks announced the initial publication of more than five million of Stratfor's e-mail messages on February 26, 2012 under the name Global Intelligence Files. Anonymous said it had leaked the emails to WikiLeaks. George Friedman stated that third parties may have forged or altered the e-mail messages, but that Stratfor would not validate either alterations or authenticity. Stratfor condemned the release.

In November 2013, computer hacker Jeremy Hammond was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for his role in the Anonymous attack. An FBI informant, Hector Xavier Monsegur (also known as "Sabu"), initially faced 124 years in prison for his role in the attack, but his sentence was reduced to time served plus one year's supervised release in May 2014 in exchange for his cooperation as an FBI informant.