Stratfor

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Stratfor logo, 2012

Strategic Forecasting, Inc ( Stratfor for short) is an American information service thatoffersanalyzes, reports and future projections on geopolitics , security issues and conflicts.

Products and company history

Stratfor publishes country reports and analyzes of global and regional conflicts on a daily basis. In its analyzes, Stratfor not only provides background information on current political and economic developments, but also makes prognoses for the future based on the determining factors of a conflict situation or country situation.

The company's team of experts consists of political scientists, economists and security experts who have “informants” in all regions of the world and who analyze a large number of generally accessible and covert sources. The US magazine Barron’s described Stratfor in 2010 as a "shadow CIA" because of its intelligence properties.

Stratfor was founded in 1996 by US geopolitical and security expert George Friedman . He deliberately did not move the company headquarters in the US capital Washington , but in the university town and economic metropolis of Austin / Texas, which is more distant from political squabbles . Before stepping down in May 2015, Friedman served as CEO and then Chairman of Stratfor for nearly 20 years.

George Friedman is now in charge of the Geopolitical Futures company, which he also founded.

services

Since 1996 Stratfor has published a daily report with comments on current developments. This service is now offered on the Internet and is open to anyone interested in return for an annual subscription. In addition, a large number of geopolitically usable information is offered. It includes, for example, extensive map material, commissioned work and regional analyzes.

At the same time, a free weekly newsletter is distributed, which deals with a current or interesting topic of world and / or security policy.

Customers

The list of customers has not yet been published by Stratfor, but some can be viewed via WikiLeaks . For example, some international corporations, especially those in the raw materials industry, rely on Stratfor. Information is also provided to government organizations. Many major US media outlets use Stratfor for background information or as a source. German-language media also use Stratfor.

Hacker attack

On December 24, 2011, after a hacker attack allegedly carried out by members of the Anonymous collective as part of the LulzXmas campaign , a customer list with around 4,000 entries was published. The hackers reportedly gained access to more than 200 gigabytes of data and announced that they would use the stolen credit card numbers , which were stored unencrypted , to make transfers to aid organizations . In total, more than 10,000 cards have been used to illegally transfer at least $ 700,000. On December 31, 75,000 customer names, addresses, credit card numbers and passwords and 860,000 user names and passwords were posted on the web.

cause

Andreas Bogk, spokesman for the Chaos Computer Club and, as a subscriber to the Stratfor newsletter, himself affected by the campaign, criticized the company's inadequate precautions to ensure information security . There is uncertainty about the identity of the attacker. A “press release” published by Anonymous on December 25, 2011 denied any involvement and condemned the hack as a disregard for freedom of the press .

Vulnerabilities

According to information published in the relevant media in mid-June 2014, the hacking of the Stratfor server was made easier by significant security flaws at Stratfor. Neither an effective firewall nor logging of the accesses made via remote maintenance had been set up. The servers were consistently accessible via remote access ports using Secure Shell and Windows Remote Desktop .

Wikileaks

On February 27, 2012, Wikileaks, in cooperation with 25 media partners, began publishing over five million company-internal emails under the name The Global Intelligence Files . WikiLeaks aims to expose the company's network of informants and to expose Stratfor's methods that are questionable or illegal from the perspective of WikiLeaks.

"To prove that Stratfor is more of a private and uncontrolled secret service , WikiLeaks cites an email from Stratfor founder and boss George Friedman to an employee."

- The time

It says:

“If this is a source that you think could be of value, you need to take control of it. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control. "

In November 2013, alleged hacker Jeremy Hammond was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Web links

 Wikinews: Stratfor  - in the news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan R. Laing: The Shadow CIA. In: Barron's. October 15, 2001, accessed December 19, 2010 .
  2. ^ Author George Friedman . goodreads.com. Accessed April 20, 2017
  3. ↑ Homepage. Retrieved June 2, 2019 (American English).
  4. ↑ Stratfor: STRATFOR in the news ( Memento from October 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (last accessed October 20, 2011)
  5. ↑ Thomas Frankenfeld : Analysis of the US secret service Stratfor - The euro is an instrument of German dominance . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . March 19, 2010
  6. ^ Tyler Durden: Stratfor Hacked, 200 GB Of Emails, Credit Cards Stolen, Client List Released, Includes MF Global, Rockefeller Foundation. In: ZeroHedge. December 24, 2011, accessed December 31, 2011 .
  7. ↑ a b Ten years imprisonment for Anonymous member , Heise online . Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  8. ^ Spiegel Online : Attack on Stratfor: Anonymous publishes hundreds of thousands of data . December 31, 2011
  9. ↑ Jan Jirát: The Inconceivable . In: WOZ The weekly newspaper . 5th January 2012
  10. ^ Stephan Dörner: Anonymous Hack: "The website was simply badly secured" . In: Handelsblatt . December 27, 2011
  11. ↑ Press Release: Stratfor hack NOT Anonymous. In: Pastebin.com. December 25, 2011, accessed December 31, 2011 .
  12. ↑ heise online : Many questions about hacker attack on US security advice . December 27, 2011
  13. ↑ Stratfor hack: "Serious security gaps" (Heise Security)
  14. ^ Verizon Business: Stratfor Computer Forensic Investigation
  15. ↑ Wikileaks: The GIFiles . In: Wikileaks , February 27, 2012. 
  16. ↑ WikiLeaks publishes new data - emails from Statfor , tagesschau.de from February 27, 2012
  17. ↑ Stratfor; WikiLeaks publishes emails from US-analysis service , the time from February 27, 2012
  18. ↑ Email No. 201031 published at WikiLeaks to George Friedman. Retrieved February 27, 2012 .