WikiLeaks began publishing emails leaked from strategic intelligence company Stratfor on 27 February 2012 under the title Global Intelligence Files. By July 2014, WikiLeaks had published 5,543,061 Stratfor emails.[1] Wikileaks partnered with more than 25 world media organisations, including Rolling Stone, L’Espresso and The Hindu to analyse the documents.[2][3]
Stratfor is an Austin, Texas-based security group, which includes government agencies and some of the world’s biggest companies as its clients.[4] On December 24, 2011, hackers took control of Stratfor's website and released a list of names, credit card numbers, passwords, and home and email addresses. Those listed were affiliated with organizations such as Bank of America, the United States Department of Defense, Médecins Sans Frontières, Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the United Nations.[5] The hackers included Jeremy Hammond, who worked with Anonymous to release Stratfor's emails to WikiLeaks. The emails revealed Stratfor's surveillance of groups such as Occupy Wall Street and activists fighting for compensation from Dow Chemicals for the Bhopal disaster.[6]
The e-mails are alleged to include client information, notes between Stratfor employees and internal procedural documentation on securing intelligence data.[7] The communications date from July 2004 through to December 2011.[8] Stratfor said the emails appeared to be those that were stolen by hackers in December 2011.[9] In an initial announcement, WikiLeaks stated that they opened up a database of the emails to two dozen media organizations operating in several countries, including the McClatchy Company, l'Espresso, la Repubblica, ARD, the Russia Reporter,[10] and Rolling Stone,[9] along with a "sneak preview" to the Yes Men.[10]
In June 2012, Stratfor settled a class action lawsuit regarding the hack.[11]
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