On Christmas Eve 2011, Anonymous took credit for a cyber attack on the servers of the Austin, Texas-based security firm Stratfor. The company admitted that its servers had been breached and as a result "personally identifiable information and related credit card data of some of our members" were taken. At least 50,000 numbers were exposed in the cyber attack, and of that number over 9,600 had not yet expired, according to Stratfor.
At the time of the attack, Anonymous claimed it would use the credit card information it took from Stratfor"s servers to make charitable donations. However, it sounds like at least some of the charges the group made on those numbers were for their own needs.
VentureBeat.com reports that at least $700,000 worth of false credit card charges were made with those numbers from the Stratfor servers, according to a statement today by the FBI. In fact the number may be larger; the records the FBI presented only go up to early February.
The story claims, via an unnamed source, that one Anonymous member used one of the credit card numbers to purchase $300 worth of hooded sweatshirts. If true, that would certainly not fit with what the group said it would do with the money.
Stratfor has already offered free identify theft protection to the victims of this particular cyber attack.