Hackers Play Tricky 21st-Century Robin Hood

A holiday-themed attack into on the Stratfor Global Intelligence service has left various charities with as much as $1 million in unauthorized donations, all thanks to the warm-hearted hackers at Antisec. The Austin-based private intelligence firm more widely known as STRATFOR admitted to a breach in aSunday evening Facebook post bearing a worrisome warning: "We have reason to believe that your personal and credit card data could have been included in the information that was illegally obtained and disclosed." Apparently, Antisec cracked into one of STRATFOR's customer database at the e-commerce service Ubercart last week and stole about 200 gigabytes worth of data, including an estimated 30,000 credit card numbers which they then used to make small donations to a number of international charities around Christmastime. Among the charities was the Red Cross which,  according to The New York Times , received at least one $200 donation from a retired Texas banker. On Tuesday, we spoke the Red Cross, and it couldn't say what's happened to that money. "Right now we're looking into the issue and telling anyone that believes an unauthorized donation has been made to contact their credit company," a Red Cross spokesperson told The Atlantic Wire.

The good news for hacker fans is that this latest attack appears to mark a comeback of sorts for the LulzSec-Anonymous spinoff group, AntiSec. First announced back in June, AntiSec serves both as the Internet's Robin Hood and as its equivalent of the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Robin Hood part is well illustrated by the transfer of wealth from STRATFOR's customers to charities like the Red Cross, but the Sheriff part is more nuanced. Rather than simply stealing a bunch of money -- it's unclear if AntiSec kept anything for themselves or simply moved it from STRATFOR's customers' bank accounts to the various charities -- AntiSec is also committed to holding the company accountable for the intelligence analysis services it provides to folks at the United States military.

Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.