Stratfor again target of Internet hackers

The security think tank Stratfor is back in the news again as its computer security woes continue.

CEO George Friedman on Friday said that in recent days "false and misleading communications" was sent to Stratfor customers. "This email, and all similar ones, are false and attempt to prey on the privacy concerns of customers and friends," Friedman said. "We strongly discourage you from opening such attachments. We deeply regret the inconvenience this latest development has created."

The false e-mail urged customers to rate Stratfor's "handling of the recent intrusion by those deranged, sexually deviant criminal hacker terrorist masterminds."

Last month, personal information belonging to about 1 million people who had registered with Stratfor was stolen by hackers. Stratfor's customer roster includes the likes of the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and the Miami Police Department. It's unclear who was behind the attacks. At first, it was claimed by activist hackers purporting to be from the group Anonymous. That claim was subsequently disputed by Anonymous.

Since then, Stratfor has taken down its regular website while it conducts a security review.

In this latest episode, the fraudulent email appears to come from George.Friedman[at]Stratfor.com.

"I want to assure everyone that this is not my email address and that any communication from this address is not from me," Friedman wrote. "I also want to assure everyone that Stratfor would never ask customers and friends to provide personal information through the type of attachment that was part of the email at issue."