WikiLeaks begins offensive against Stratfor

WikiLeaks announced a return to action last night with an announcement and the leaking of greater than five million emails from global intelligence company Stratfor.

Named the ‘Global Intelligence files', they date from July 2004 until late December 2011, when Stratfor suffered a significant hack by Anonymous that led to the private information of 860,000 people being published, including 50,000 military and government credentials.

The issuing of an announcement by Stratfor founder and CEO George Friedman revealed that it were hacked in early December, with customer bank card and other information stolen.

According to WikiLeaks, the emails reveal the interior workings of an organization that fronts as an 'intelligence publisher', but provides confidential intelligence services to very large contractors and government agencies, and "show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods".

It claimed that there are greater than 4,000 emails mentioning WikiLeaks or founder Julian Assange, and said that just like the diplomatic cables from 2010, much of the importance of the emails might be revealed over the approaching weeks "as our coalition and the general public search through them and discover connections".

WikiLeaks didn't say the way it had gained access to the interior and external correspondence, but did say that it's working with 24 media organisations worldwide that experience access to a database of the Stratfor emails.

Stratfor issued an announcement that denounced the e-mail disclosure as a "deplorable breach of privacy". It confirmed that a breach of Stratfor's data systems had ended in plenty of company emails stolen, along side other private information in the case of Stratfor readers, subscribers and employees.

It called the selection of WikiLeaks to publish those documents and details as "a deplorable, unfortunate â€" and illegal â€" breach of privacy".

It said: “Some of the emails could be forged or altered to incorporate inaccuracies; some can be authentic. We won't validate either. Nor do we explain the thinking that went into them. Having had our property stolen, we can't be victimised twice by submitting to questioning about them.”

It also said that there had not been another hack of Stratfor's computer and knowledge systems, and its data systems remain secure and guarded because the hack in December.

“As with last year's hack, the discharge of those emails is an immediate attack on Stratfor. It is another try and silence and intimidate the corporate, and one we reject. Under the ongoing leadership of founder and chief executive officer George Friedman, Stratfor is just not silenced and can continue to publish the geopolitical analysis our friends and subscribers have come to rely on,” it said.

“As we've said before, Stratfor has worked to construct good sources in lots of countries all over the world, as any publisher of world geopolitical analysis would do. We've done so in an easy manner and we're committed to meeting the very best standards of pro conduct.”

It denied being a central authority organisation or being affiliated with any government, and said that because the emails are private property, they need to be read as casually as they were written.

It concluded by saying: “Stratfor understands that this hack and the fallout from it, including the disclosures by Wikileaks, have created serious difficulties for our subscribers, friends and employees. We again apologise for any problems this incident has created, and we deeply appreciate the loyalty that was shown to Stratfor since last year's hack.

“We desire to assure everyone that Stratfor is committed to recovering from the hack and rebuilding trust with the general public and may continue to do what we do best: produce and publish industry-leading analysis of international affairs.”

In a later tweet, it denied that Friedman had resigned.