You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Science & Technology
Stratfor Site Destroyed. Other Sites In The Crosshairs
2011-12-25
The Internet vandalism group "Anonymous" broke in to the Strafor website. Before wiping the contents of the entire site, they made off with their entire client list and donation records including credit card information along with reams of email correspondance.

Anonymous claims it has enough other sites lined up to keep it busy over the holidays.

Website owners: mind your security, check your logs, change your passwords.

Posted by:crosspatch

#17  "What is galling, is that the initial information suggests that STRATFOR, a security and intelligence consulting and analysis service, didn't encrypt my data."

Maybe they did but if the website can access that data in order to do things such as process payments and send confirmation emails, then someone controlling that website can possibly get the information.

Also, many web sites don't keep up with security patches as they come out because they don't want to sacrifice "uptime". And if they are managing their website in-house, they might not have an outsider check it for security vulnerabilities.

What tends to happen is you end up with someone managing the site, either in-house or outsourced, who thinks they are a smartest person in the world and doesn't like the idea of someone else critiquing their code/configuration.

If they outsource management of their site, other customers of that outfit might be at risk, too.
Posted by: crosspatch   2011-12-25 21:54  

#16  More on Stratfor
Posted by: Dale   2011-12-25 21:38  

#15  I susbscribe to STRATFOR and gor a message from them today, Christmas Day, telling me that my name and my financial and personal data were likly compromised and may be posted as one of their "private clients" on some websites. They cautioned that not just my financai data but personal infrmation may be used since the "private clients" appear to be the targers of the hacking groups. What is galling, is that the initial information suggests that STRATFOR, a security and intelligence consulting and analysis service, didn't encrypt my data.
So now I'm at financial risk and identity risk and harrassment risk since my email account with them is my real name, not a pseudonym. YJMTSU
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2011-12-25 20:50  

#14  "These type of assholes have been treated like folk heros by the left and hollywood for decades."

Exactly. All we would need to do is make fun of them and for a self-professed member of the group to be laughed at by their peers. We need some "anonymous sucks" t-shirts.

I certainly hope DHS is following #LulzXmas on twitter and giving every single one of those idiots a little visit.
Posted by: crosspatch   2011-12-25 14:04  

#13  Yes, but when "your" information is stolen in the name of justice zealots, that's cool. If information you originally paid for (climate garbage)is made generally available, that is a crime which must be investigated and punished. Got it?
Posted by: M. Murcek   2011-12-25 13:13  

#12  Well what did people expect?

These type of assholes have been treated like folk heros by the left and hollywood for decades.

Even Anonymous and Wikileaks are treated as folk-heros no matter how many people they manage to get killed. As long as it's the 'other guy' (or the evil government) getting hit it seems to be ok.

What is the difference between Anonymous telling websites to behave or be 'raided' and a Iman telling women to don the bag or risk ...?

If someone knows who these people are - why aren't they in a federal pound-me-in-the-ass Prison as they should be?

And don't expect any help from the injustice department - not with Holder and Obumbles in charge. I would not be suprised if Anonmous and the others are operating under the direction of or with the support of Holder and Obama - just another Fast and Furious project.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2011-12-25 13:04  

#11  I think it's probably very unlikely the sites in question were IIS hosted sites...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2011-12-25 12:56  

#10  Perhaps Microslop and others will start taking this stuff seriously one of these days.
Posted by: gorb   2011-12-25 12:52  

#9  Same formula as academic leftism. Because these individuals have mastered a very extremely narrow niche of "knowledge" (actually recipe readers and test takers) they have made the illogical leap to convincing themselves that they know it all and are anointed to tell everyone else how to live. QED...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2011-12-25 11:54  

#8  I am late to the party. I feel like an old slug. I understand from one service like AVG they indicate billions of issues to deal with. Like Anonymoose has said before the internet never forgets. Looks like the New Year will have some surprises. Sounds to me like the old con man days are obsolete. Now they can cut through the chit chat and go for the money. The Obama way. Who needs congress. Who needs people. Sounds like a new tool for occupy people and Soros.
Posted by: Dale   2011-12-25 11:24  

#7  OK, I'll ask a stupid question.

Since apparently someone knows who these clowns are, why haven't they been hacked back?

(I realize a missle up the *ss would be preferable, but I doubt a Western gummint anyone with access to such missles would have the guts to do that.)
Posted by: Barbara   2011-12-25 11:06  

#6  hat opening are they exploiting to get in to what should be pretty secure sites?

Prolly database injection attacks. Once they can connect to a database port, they can dump a password table and then access everything on their mail server, all without having to log on.
Posted by: badanov   2011-12-25 10:52  

#5  What opening are they exploiting to get in to what should be pretty secure sites? Are they also getting in to our bank accounts, etc? If not yet, then soon? Unless the governments (all) decides the bank accounts belong to THEM, and competition from hackers prompts a response.
Posted by: Glenmore   2011-12-25 10:45  

#4  Proceso reported this morning that UNESCO's Mexican office got hit, as did national and Sinaloa state website for Partido Accion Nacional, COPARMEX, the Mexican central bank; last week it was TV Azteca and the Guerrero state attorney general's office
Posted by: badanov   2011-12-25 10:24  

#3  Anyway, I can't believe they do not have a backup.

I can't either. For a security-related website, you'd think they would have all kinds of firewalls and a protected website. You'd think cybersecurity would be the watchword.
Posted by: JohnQC   2011-12-25 09:26  

#2  There is more to this than meets the eye.

The group Anonymous contributes little more than raw numbers of low level hackers. But others have taken advantage of their notoriety to conduct both serious criminal, and intelligence organization hacking attacks.

One such effort, called Operation AntiSec, has been responsible for some serious attacks, and some members of Anonymous thought it was their doing.

However, it was done by a shadowy, faux-Anonymous group called LulzSec. While they try to mimic Anonymous to appear more benign, they are both professional hackers, and engaged in far more serious acts.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2011-12-25 08:30  

#1  Why Stratfor?

Anyway, I can't believe they do not have a backup.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike   2011-12-25 07:19  

00:00