Guardian: Email Passwords of US, British Officials, Military Leaked

Local Editor

The UK "Guardian" daily reported Monday that "e-mail addresses and passwords belonging to British, US and NATO officials were posted online following the hacking of a US intelligence analysis firm over Christmas.
Online "hacktivist" group Anonymous claimed via Twitter on Christmas Day that it had stolen a trove of emails and credit card information from Stratfor's member subscribers.

According to analysis carried out for the Guardian by John Bumgarner, an expert in cyber-security at the US Cyber Consequences Unit, a research body in Washington, "details of senior British intelligence officials and US military staff were hacked."

"In the US case, details of 173 individuals serving in Afghanistan were publicized, along with the personal details of former vice-president Dan Quayle and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger," the report confirmed.

Unveiling that "some 221 British military officials and 242 NATO staff were also victims along with advisers to Britain's Joint Intelligence Organization, a body which reports sensitive information to Prime Minister David Cameron, Bumgarner found," the paper highlighted that "around 19,000 email addresses belonging to US military personnel were also leaked."

Stratfor, which is based in Texas, specializes in foreign affairs and security issues.

"The hacked spreadsheets contained email addresses and encrypted passwords of around 850,000 individuals who had subscribed to the consultancy's website," Guardian mentioned reporting that "over 75,000 subscribers also had their credit card numbers and addresses revealed.
 
"We are aware that subscriber details for the Stratfor website have been published in the public domain," a British government spokesman said.
"At present, there is no indication of any threat to UK government systems," he assured.


Source: Guardian , Edited by moqawama.org