Data stolen from 1,000 Canadian officials

The personal information of 1,000 Canadian government officials was stolen as part of a vast data heist last December, it has been revealed.

The data was stolen by hackers who infiltrated the computers of Texan intelligence company Strategic Forecasting, a Texas-based global intelligence company more widely known as Stratfor, also dubbed the "shadow CIA". According to a memo issued by Public Safety Canada, personal information – such as emails, passwords, credit card data and home addresses – were on a client list maintained by Strategic Forecasting.

Jeremy Hammond, 27, has pleaded not guilty to the attack. The Chicago resident was arrested in an investigation of the activist groups Anonymous and LulzSec. He was arrested along with four others after Hector Xavier Monsegur, a LulzSec founder known online as “Sabu”, was arrested and co-opted as an informant to the FBI.

The company has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by clients whose data was stolen from its list, providing them with free access to its service and an electronic book that it published, along with credit monitoring protection.