The Robin Hood-style attack started on Christmas Eve. Credit:Karl Hilzinger The details of Mr Turnbull, the opposition communications spokesman, and Mr Smorgon, founder of Generation Investments, were also among those published online, The Australian reports. A spokesman confirmed Mr Turnbull's private details had been published. Mr Smorgon said he had cancelled his credit card upon hearing the news. ''I was advised (by Stratfor via email) a few days ago on what had happened,'' Mr Smorgon told The Australian.

''I was totally surprised (by the hacking) ... I have cancelled my American Express credit card and I was obviously not the first to do so. ''This is a warning bell for everyone and I guess it's the cost of doing business online.'' Stratfor's chief executive, George Friedman, has told clients, including several US government departments, foreign embassies, Interpol, the US Army and the United Nations, to expect ''identity theft protection and monitoring''. In the meantime, he urged them to regularly check their accounts and credit reports and issued his ''sincerest apologies'' for the security breach, which makes it possible for anyone with access to the internet to download thousands of credit card account details, complete with security codes, in less than a minute. The assault was believed to have been orchestrated by a branch of the loosely affiliated hacker group called Anti-Sec and appeared to be inspired by anger at the imprisonment of Bradley Manning, the US army private accused of leaking US government files to WikiLeaks. An online statement from the group said the attack would stop if Manning was given ''a holiday feast ... at a fancy restaurant of his choosing''.

Credit card account details belonging to Stratfor clients at companies including Goldman Sachs, Shell and Nestle were among those that appeared online. ''On 24 December an unauthorised party disclosed personally identifiable information and related credit card data of some of our members,'' Mr Friedman said in a statement. ''We have reason to believe that your personal and credit card data could have been included in the information that was illegally obtained and disclosed. Also publicly released was a list of our members, which the unauthorised party claimed to be Stratfor's 'private clients'. ''Contrary to this assertion, the disclosure was merely a list of some of the members that have purchased our publications and does not comprise a list of individuals or entities that have a relationship with Stratfor beyond their purchase of our subscription-based publications.'' One member of the hacking group, who uses the handle AnonymousSabu on Twitter, claimed that more than 90,000 credit cards - including those of law enforcement agencies, the intelligence community and journalists - had been hacked to make donations.

The hackers linked to images online that purported to be receipts for charitable donations made by the group manipulating the stolen credit card data. ''Thank you! Defense Intelligence Agency,'' read the text above one image that appeared to show an agency employee's information was used to donate $250 to a charity. The hackers mocked those who complained about having money stolen and plundered their accounts afresh. They said in an online statement: ''Let us not forget dear old Victor Gebilaguin, who posted the following on Stratfor's Facebook wall in defence of the company: 'The hackers ought to be shot then hanged upside down in public.' Well, since you feel so strongly about it, Victor, we went ahead and ran your card up a bit. Hope you don't mind. Really guys, cry us a river.'' Stratfor urged its customers to exercise caution when complaining publicly. Loading