The same group of hackers who claimed credit for breaking into the network of Stratfor Global Intelligence are now claiming to have broken into Special Forces, a site owned by veterans that sells military-themed merchandise and gives away part of its proceeds to charity.

From the New York Times:

In a posting online, the hackers said they were able to steal customer credit card information even though the site’s data was encrypted, and claimed to have 14,000 passwords and details for 8,000 credit cards belonging to Special Forces’ customers. They said they breached the Special Forces’ site months ago.

By Wednesday, IdentityFinder, a maker of data protection software, confirmed that SpecialForces.com had been compromised and determined that hackers had taken 7,277 unique credit card numbers, 40,854 e-mail addresses and released 36,368 usernames and passwords.

Interestingly, both companies are based in Austin, Texas. Not sure what to make of that. The obvious conclusion would be that the hackers must be based there too except for that’s not how the Internet works.

The hacks are all being credited to Anonymous but one would be well served to be dubious about just what “Anonymous” means anymore. It’s a very loose collective with a somewhat inconsistent ideology. It’s very likely that hackers, whether they mean to be malicious, mischievous, or altruistic, simply fly the Anonymous flag to give their actions a patina of gravity and nobility.