WikiLeaks to publish security think tank emails

al Reauters ^ | 2:33 PM Monday Feb 27, 2012

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said it would begin publishing more than five million emails on Monday from a US-based global security think tank, apparently obtained by hackers.

In its latest high-profile disclosure, WikiLeaks said in a statement it had acquired access to a vast haul of internal and external correspondence of Strategic Forecasting Inc (Stratfor), based in Austin Texas.

[magellan]

We really need a Presidential candidate who will take it to the nihilist movements such as Occupy, Anonymous, and Wikileaks.

These groups have left any nobility of cause behind. They attack private individuals, private organizations, and private enterprise now.

[sten]

national security... must plug the leak

track down all members and contributors of wiki leaks...

plug them.

problem solved.

[muawiyah]

Are there no pickup trucks? Are there no chains!

(/s)

[ConservativeMind]

Any conservative-leaning organization should already be more than aware that their IT security is being studied by Anonymous. For a “think-tank” to not think about this is beyond the pale.

Spend some money on keeping your crud private, if privacy means anything to your business.

Idiots.

[LRoggy]

If there was ever a good non-Al-Qaeda target for a Predator drone or two its these guys. In the old days the CIA would have put these guys away a long time ago.

[Norm Lenhart]

What you have are a bunch of Anarchists raised on William Gibson novels and the ‘cyberpunk’ ethos.

Wanna know what they do next or how they think Read Neuromancer or Burning Chrome. Pull up the old logs of Alt 2600. Watch Swordfish, Johnny Mnemonic or films of that genre. You are dealing with sci fi geeks with a serious love of a romantacized ‘ethics system’. And the IT/computer skills to pull a lot of it off.

[Theoria]

Agreed. Any company that of note that puts their stuff online has nothing but hubris. As the ‘leak’ has shown, Stratfor has put our ‘diplomats’ in Pakistan at risk because of their weak security.

[GeronL]

Will the “anti-secrecy” group reveal its sources?

[Sparticus]

If there was ever a good non-Al-Qaeda target for a Predator drone or two its these guys. In the old days the CIA would have put these guys away a long time ago.

The problem is that you'd have to get them all at the same time. Wikileaks published a huge encrypted file last year which they say is their "insurance policy." The implication is that the dirt in it is so bad that no government could dare try to take them out lest they make public the decryption key.

[Norm Lenhart]

Even if you got the actual heads of it, all the fanboys have the ‘key’.

If it’s real info and real ‘bad’, then the US is either at the mercy of pimple-faced geeks who can now control aspects of our policy or ‘we’ have to deal with the fallout of ‘bad’ and move on from there.

That’s a pretty horrid thought to ponder, but when you get right down to it, it’s the reality: Anarchists in control under threat of blackmail.

Killing them all and deal with whatever happens is the far lesser of the ‘evils’ because at some point, just like any other blackmailer, they will demand more than we collectively as a country are willing to or CAN give.

[DouglasKC]

I believe that the Obama administration has as it’s goal the weakening and destruction of our country. They’re feeding these things to wikileaks to expose our weaknesses and weaken our national security.

[GreatRoad]

Time for the Feds to pull the plug and go low-tech. I bet DOS was before the hackers’ time, heck bet they can’t edit an autoexec bat.

[eyedigress]

I had great success with those simple scripts. Of course I had to do it. :^)

[af_vet_rr]

national security... must plug the leak

In this instance, it's not a national security issue - Stratfor is a private organization.

Now if Stratfor is gaining access to the government's classified information, then it raises a completely different issue - namely that they are illegally gaining access to classified information.

When this happened, somebody here raised the issue of whether Stratfor was paying folks in the military or government for classified information. If these emails prove that government employees or military personnel are illegally providing Stratfor with classified information, I predict some careers ending and people doing jailtime over this.

And yes, there are people who are dumb enough or bold enough to be using their real names and even their .gov or .mil email addresses.

[combat_boots]

Anti-capitalism at work.

Destroy the economy, and destroy the power. So, they expose the communications on decisions with geo-political, intelligence and economic implictions on a massive scale, and.....

Next, we’ll hear that Wikileaks has the Rothchilds, IG Farben, Rockefellers and Clintons by the short hairs.

[combat_boots]

Let’s see Wikileaks take down Soros. Then, I’ll believe that they’re really anti-capitalist.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks E. Pluribus Unum.

[Theoria]

lol:

'It is now clear that the "Stratfor Leak" is replete with spies. The "Stratfor Leak" needs further intensive review. Cryptocomb has discovered that Ann Foley (Illegal Russian Spy) was a Stratfor Member. She used her real russian name "Elena Vavilova" (Stupid Move) in her registration, and used her cover name (Ann Foley) as her billing name. Her Stratfor password was "heathfield". Her email address was/is annfoleysvp@hotmail.com'

[VanShuyten]

I heard an interview on John Batchelor with the author of a book on the “super-hackers” who had broken into just about every government and financial computer system. The author said that the hackers didn’t go into Russian systems because the Russians had made it very clear that such an attack would result in death, no matter who or where.

[achilles2000]

Stratfor? Ha! They just hacked into 5 million pieces of spam and exercises in creative writing. They might as well have hacked the emails of Attorney Odingo Njuba of Lagos, Nigeria, who needs help moving several million dollars from Lagos to London.

[VanShuyten]

The book is Darkmarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops, and You by Misha Glenny.

A summary of the interview is here: http://johnbatchelorshow.com/jb/2012/01/darkmarket-for-all-2012/

[Tenega]

...I predict some careers ending and people doing jailtime over this...

Zerohedge reporting George Friedman has resigned as Stratfor CEO.

http://www.zerohedge.com/

http://pastebin.com/D7sR4zhT

[af_vet_rr]

'It is now clear that the "Stratfor Leak" is replete with spies. The "Stratfor Leak" needs further intensive review. Cryptocomb has discovered that Ann Foley (Illegal Russian Spy) was a Stratfor Member. She used her real russian name "Elena Vavilova" (Stupid Move) in her registration, and used her cover name (Ann Foley) as her billing name. Her Stratfor password was "heathfield". Her email address was/is annfoleysvp@hotmail.com'

Interesting, but I wonder if she got actual classified information from Stratfor. I will give Stratfor the benefit of the doubt and assume they got their information from careful analysis of events through the media and press releases that anybody with a brain could develop, but if it is something like another FReeper said, and there are people in the government or military selling information to Stratfor, there will be some people in trouble

[af_vet_rr]

Zerohedge reporting George Friedman has resigned as Stratfor CEO.

Surprised he admits that Stratfor didn't have good security. Seems like that would open them up to a lot of lawsuits from their subscribers.

[sten]

many corporations deal with classified information as part of their function.

all levels of information.

[expat1000]

This is not the first time they have been hacked, or maybe this is the info that Wikileaks allegedly has:

“STRATFOR’s subscribers list was confidential, and the company’s publicity list includes Fortune 500 companies and international government agencies.[5] The hacker group Operation AntiSec claimed to have made it public on December 24, 2011,[6] however, Stratfor denied that the hack recovered the client list.[7] Stratfor instead claimed that the group only recovered a list of news subscriptions.”

[af_vet_rr]

many corporations deal with classified information as part of their function.

all levels of information.

Do those corporations sell that information or sell reports based on that information? Because that's what Stratfor does. I'm not aware of any corporations selling classified information to anybody with a pulse and a credit card. At least legally.

The hacking crap - that's a criminal case. They need to catch the guys who did it and file charges against them and throw them in prison. Stratfor's former founder and CEO admitting they didn't have good security - that's a civil case just waiting to be filed by Stratfor subscribers. Chances are Stratfor will fire some people (the wrong people), settle out of court, and continue doing business as usual.

But if it comes out that there are government/military personnel selling information to Stratfor, and that's what being mentioned by people who have seen some of the hacked stuff, that's a completely different matter. That's going to involve both the informants and Stratfor.