'Anonymous' claimed Sunday to have stolen thousands of credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to clients of US-based security think tank Stratfor. |
The loose-knit hacking movement 'Anonymous' claimed Sunday to have stolen thousands of credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to clients of US-based security think tank Stratfor. One hacker said the goal was to pilfer funds from individuals' accounts to give away as Christmas donations, and some victims confirmed unauthorized transactions linked to their credit cards. Anonymous boasted of stealing Stratfor's confidential client list, which includes entities ranging from Apple Inc. to the US Air Force to the Miami Police Department, and mining it for more than 4,000 credit card numbers, passwords and home addresses. Austin, Texas-based Stratfor provides political, economic and military analysis to help clients reduce risk, according to a description on its YouTube page. It charges subscribers for its reports and analysis, delivered through the web, emails and videos. The company's main website was down, with a banner saying the 'site is currently undergoing maintenance.' Proprietary information about the companies and government agencies that subscribe to Stratfor's newsletters did not apear to be at any significant risk, however, with the main threat posed to individual employees who had subscribed. 'Not so private and secret anymore?' Anonymous taunted in a message on Twitter, promising that the attack on Stratfor was just the beginning of a Christmas-inspired assault on a long list of targets. Anonymous said the client list it had already posted was a small slice of the 200 gigabytes worth of plunder it stole from Stratfor and promised more leaks. It said it was able to get the credit card details in part because Stratfor didn't bother encrypting them — an easy-to-avoid blunder which, if true, would be a major embarrassment for any security-related company. Fred Burton, Stratfor's vice president of intelligence, said the company had reported the intrusion to law enforcement and was working with them on the investigation. Stratfor has protections in place meant to prevent such attacks, he said. 'But I think the hackers live in this kind of world where once they fixate on you or try to attack you it's extraordinarily difficult to defend against,' Burton said. (Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
組織松散的黑客團體“匿名者”上周日宣稱成功侵入美國安全智庫戰(zhàn)略預測公司數(shù)據(jù)庫,竊取數(shù)千份信用卡號碼及其他個人信息。 一名黑客說,此舉是為了偷竊客戶賬戶中的資金,用作圣誕節(jié)捐贈。一些受害人證實信用卡賬戶出現(xiàn)不明轉(zhuǎn)賬。 “匿名者”宣稱獲取了戰(zhàn)略預測公司的保密客戶清單,所列客戶包括蘋果公司、美國空軍、邁阿密警察局,失竊資料包括信用卡賬號、密碼和住址,總共超過四千份。 根據(jù)其在YouTube視頻網(wǎng)站主頁上的描述,戰(zhàn)略預測公司總部位于得克薩斯州奧斯汀,提供政治、經(jīng)濟和軍事分析,幫助客戶減小風險。 該公司經(jīng)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)、電子郵件和視頻向客戶傳遞報告和分析,收取費用。 這家機構(gòu)的網(wǎng)站癱瘓,首頁橫幅解釋是“網(wǎng)站正在維護”。 但訂閱該公司郵件的公司和政府機構(gòu)的專有信息似乎沒有受到嚴重威脅,主要風險集中在訂閱了郵件的個人員工客戶。 “匿名者”在一條推文中嘲諷地說道:“再也沒那么私人和秘密了吧?”“匿名者”宣稱針對“戰(zhàn)略預測”公司的這次以圣誕節(jié)為靈感的襲擊只是開始,公布的也只是部分客戶名單。 “匿名者”表示,已經(jīng)公布的客戶名單只是該團體從戰(zhàn)略預測公司竊取的2000億字節(jié)數(shù)據(jù)資料的冰山一角,這些資料非常值得偷竊,而且還宣稱會繼續(xù)泄漏資料。 “匿名者”稱,他們能獲取客戶信用卡信息部分是因為戰(zhàn)略預測公司沒有對信息加密。如果這一說法屬實,對任何一家與安全相關(guān)的公司而言,這都會非常尷尬,因為這是最容易避免的疏漏。 戰(zhàn)略預測公司副總裁弗雷德?伯頓說,公司已經(jīng)報告了這起違法案件,將與執(zhí)法部門聯(lián)手開展調(diào)查。 他表示,戰(zhàn)略預測公司有旨在預防類似攻擊的適當?shù)谋Wo措施。 伯頓說:“但我認為,在當今世界,只要被黑客盯上,或者只要他們想要攻擊你,防護就異常艱難。” 相關(guān)閱讀 (中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 Julie 編輯:陳丹妮) |
Vocabulary: pilfer: 偷竊 proprietary information: 專有資料,有產(chǎn)權(quán)的資料,有產(chǎn)權(quán)的情報 encrypt: 加密 |