Strategic Forecasting, Inc. — known as Stratfor — is an American publisher and
global intelligence company founded in 1996 in Austin, Texas, by George
Friedman, who was the company's chairman. Shea Morenz is president and
chief executive officer. Fred Burton is Stratfor's vice president of
intelligence. Other executives include Chief Operating
Officer Mark Ozdarski, a retired Navy SEAL officer who also has worked as an
investment portfolio manager; former U.S. Special Operations Command officer
Bret Boyd, vice president of custom intelligence services; and
Editor-in-Chief David Judson. Products
Stratfor bills itself as a geopolitical intelligence and consulting firm, with
revenues derived from subscriptions to its website and from corporate clients.
On the consulting side, the company says it helps clients to identify
opportunities, make strategic decisions, and manage political and security risks.
Stratfor has published a daily intelligence briefing since its
inception in 1996. Its rise to prominence occurred with the release of
its Kosovo Crisis Center during the 1999 NATO airstrikes over Kosovo, which led
to publicity in Time magazine, Texas Monthly, and other publications. Before
the end of 1999, however, Stratfor had introduced a subscription service
through which it offered the majority of its analyses. At the time of the
September 11, 2001 attacks, Stratfor made its "breaking news" paragraphs, as
well as some notable analyses predicting likely actions to be taken by al-Qaeda
and the Bush administration, available freely to the public.
Stratfor's publishing business includes written and multimedia analysis and an
iPhone application. A monthly publication called Compass was launched
in June 2014, adding a third tier to the company's subscription business model.
In a public announcement, the company said Compass is designed specifically
for global executives in strategic industries such as energy, trade,
finance, and technology. In addition to publishing and consulting
work, Stratfor also makes analysts available for public speaking
engagements. Some of Stratfor's work remains available free to the public.
Books and media Stratfor has published collections of
analysis on a variety of topics into paperback books. Topics include user
guides to personal security, the "devolution of jihadism," and the U.S.
war in Afghanistan, according to a series of promotional videos on the
company's YouTube channel. Apparently, at one point, the books were sold
through a storefront on the company's website, which is no longer active.
A number of the company's top analysts have published books in their own name.
Notable among these are founder George Friedman and vice president for
intelligence Fred Burton. Kamran Bokhari, Stratfor's vice president for
Middle East and South Asian affairs, is the author of Political Islam in the Age
of Democratization. Reviewer Amani el Sehrawey called the book "an invaluable
tool for those seeking to gain knowledge of the nuances of the political systems
of the Muslim world from a historical perspective, as well as to understand
the contemporary changes happening in the region."
Stratfor has been cited by media such as the Associated Press, BBC, Bloomberg,
CNN, Reuters, and The New York Times as an authority on strategic and tactical
intelligence issues. Barron's once referred to it as "The Shadow CIA".
Barrons' Jonathan Laing has called Friedman "one of our favorite experts on
geopolitics," saying, "His judgments tend to be more nuanced and long-term
than those of the press or Wall Street." More recently, The Atlantic's James
Fallows referenced a Stratfor article on U.S. strategy in Iraq and Ukraine,
following outbreaks of turmoil in those regions
Subscribers The subscribers list for Stratfor was
confidential and the company's publicity list includes Fortune 500 companies and
international government agencies. The hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec
claimed to have made it public on December 24, 2011 as part of Operation
AntiSec. Stratfor denied that the hack recovered the client list, however,
instead Stratfor claimed that the group recovered only a list of news
subscriptions. Funding
In October 2015, Stratfor raises $12-million in funding through a growth
equity investment by Dallas-based Teakwood Capital. Stratfor's plan for
the funding includes expanding its intelligence networks, enhancing
operational infrastructure and moving into frontier markets.
Incidents = 2011 hacking incident =
It was reported on December 24, 2011 that members of Anonymous had stolen
e-mail messages and credit card data from Stratfor's website. According to
the one page that remained published at Stratfor's web site, its status was
reported as "Site is currently undergoing maintenance[:] Please check
back soon". The hackers claimed to have retrieved the company's client list and
used stolen credit card information to make donations to various charities
exceeding one million dollars. The hackers also claimed to have
retrieved more than 200 gigabytes of data, and stated that Stratfor was
"clueless...when it comes to database security". The credit card data was in
plain text, and many of the passwords were simply the name of the company. The
failure to encrypt the card data was called "an embarrassing mistake for a
company specializing in security" by Zoe Fox of CNN. The list of the leaked
accounts has been made available online for users to check if they are affected.
Stratfor advised employees and clients not to state support for their company
publicly, fearing additional attacks against those who did so. The group
initially posted three sets of stolen credit card data, one containing 3,956
items and the other 13,191 items. Next, they posted a set of more than 30,000
items. The hackers said they used the credit
card data to make donations to various charities, including CARE, the Red
Cross, and Save the Children. In November 2013, computer hacker Jeremy
Hammond was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for his role in the
Anonymous attack. An FBI informant, Hector Xavier Monsegur, initially faced
124 years in prison for his role in the attack, but his sentence was reduced to
time served plus one year's supervised release in May 2014.
= 2012 leak = WikiLeaks announced the initial
publication of more than five million of Stratfor's e-mail messages on February
26, 2012. Anonymous claimed to have provided WikiLeaks with the data. George
Friedman stated that third parties may have forged or altered the e-mail
messages, but that Stratfor would not validate either alterations or
authenticity. Stratfor condemned the release as "deplorable". Journalist Amy
Goodman, writing in The Guardian, referred to the first published leaks of
Stratfor material as peering into an "intelligence-industrial complex".
References Further reading
Friedman, George. America's secret war: inside the hidden worldwide struggle
between the United States and its enemies. Random House. ISBN
978-0-7679-1785-8. Friedman, George, Torture and the U.S.
Intelligence Failure, Stratfor, Geopolitical Weekly, April 20, 2009
External links Official website
Stratfor: Inside the World of a Private CIA
WikiLeaks Goes Inside Corporate America's Wannabe CIA
Stratfor Monitors and Studies Social Movements
Геополитические прогнозы «STRATFOR» по России
Fred Burton, Stratfor VP for Racist Slurs Al Akhbar English