A member of the Saudi hacking collective Group-XP, claimed in a message on pastebay yesterday to have posted the personal information, including card details, of around 400,000 Israelis.

Explaining the move, the message says: "What's fun for us?

• Watching 400,000 people gathered in front of Israeli credit card companies and banks, complaining about cards and that they are stolen
• Watching Israeli banks shredding 400,000 credit cards and re-generate new cards (so costly, huh?)
• Watching people purchasing stuff for theirself using the cards and making Israeli credit cards untrustable in the world, like Nigerian credit cards".

However, Dov Kotler, CEO, Isracard, has told Reuters that most of the card numbers are incorrect or invalid and only 14,000 were at risk. These have now been blocked.

Meanwhile, international hacking group Anonymous is understood to have obtained credit card numbers in two of its most recent attacks.

On Christmas Day, a message on pastebin from a member claimed responsibility for an attack on security think tank Stratfor and attached details of around 4000 credit cards. The message highlights the plight of Bradley Manning, accused of leaking documents to WikiLeaks, and demands that he "be given a delicious meal this Lulzxmas".

In a separate case, Anonymous has claimed to have posted names, addresses, phone numbers and credit card information from members of the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association union. The details, taken from the union's online gift store were posted because "California police have a notorious history of brutality and therefore have been on our hit list for a good minute now."