Strategic Forecasting is to settle the class action lawsuit brought against it by a disgruntled customer after hackers published large amounts of stolen customer data on the internet in late 2011.
The Anonymous hacking collective took responsibility for hacking Stratfor – as the security analyst firm is better known – in December 2011, and released what they claimed was the company’s confidential client list, as well as credit card details, passwords and home addresses for 4,000 Stratfor clients.
Bank of America, the Defence Department, Doctors Without Borders, Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the United Nations were all listed as Stratfor clients.
Interesting Links
Reuters reports that the judge gave Stratfor the seal of approval for its settlement deal in mid-June, citing court filings from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The settlement will see Stratfor offer members of the class action suit one month of free services, worth $29.08, and a Stratfor e-book known as "The Blue Book". The settlement estimates that the two things will cost Stratfor $1.75 million.
Stratfor will also have to buy credit monitoring services for any class members who ask for it.
At the time of the hack, Stratfor said it had provided identity protection coverage for its paid subscribers. "We have provided paid subscribers with identity protection coverage from CSID, a leading provider of global identity protection, at our expense for 12 months," Stratfor said.
The settlement is subject to a final approval hearing, set for September 28.
