Website WikiLeaks published details of sites around the globe which the United States deems vital to its interests, prompting criticism that it is helping militants identify targets for attack.
The details are part of 250,000 diplomatic cables obtained by the campaigning website which are being made public.
The list includes two Irish locations: The Hibernia Atlantic undersea cable landing in Dublin and the Genzyme Ireland pharmaceutical plant in Co Waterford.
The Genzyme factory, established in 2001, produces Thymoglobulin, a kidney transplant rejection product.
The Hibernia Atlantic cable is a 12,200 kilometre transatlantic cable connecting Ireland and Europe with North America.
The overall list begins with a cobalt mine in Kinshasa, Congo and refers to various locations in Europe where drug companies produce insulin, treatment for snake bites and foot and mouth vaccines.
In the Middle East, it notes that Qatar will be the largest source of imported liquified natural gas (LNG) by 2012 and also refers to the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia, the largest crude oil process and stabilisation plant in the world.
Al-qaeda mounted an unsuccessful attack on Abqaiq in 2006 and there were warnings that the WikiLeaks cable setting out so many sensitive targets could help militants.
The latest leak lists hundreds of pipelines, undersea cables and factories, including a cobalt mine in Congo, an anti-snake venom factory in Australia and an insulin plant in Denmark.
The revelations are likely to prove hugely embarrassing to the US and come in the wake of a series of damaging exposes by the website.
The latest revelations come as the lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed to fight moves to extradite his client from the UK to Sweden.
Swedish authorities are seeking to question Mr Assange regarding sex allegations, which his lawyer Mark Stephens has denounced as a “political stunt”.
Mr Stephens said Mr Assange would “certainly” fight deportation on the grounds that it could lead to him being handed over to the US, where senior politicians have called for him to be executed.
He said that the WikiLeaks site - which was last week forced to move to a Swiss host after being dumped by US internet companies - had come under siege from “a huge number of cyber-attacks”.
The organisation held further secret material which it regarded as a “thermo-nuclear device” to be released if it needs to protect itself, he said.
Following the latest leak, WikiLeaks was condemned for publishing material that could be of interest to terrorists.
Among sites listed in the UK are a transatlantic undersea cable landing in Cornwall; naval and motoring engineering firm MacTaggart Scott, based in the small Scottish town of Loanhead; and BAE Systems sites in Preston and Chorley, both in Lancashire, and one in Plymouth.
It is understood that the BAE Systems sites in Chorley and Plymouth are no longer in operation and that the activities that were being carried out there have since been moved elsewhere.
Asked about the risk that the published list of sites could be of interest to terrorists, the company’s spokeswoman added: “The safety and security of our people and facilities is of highest priority. We have no further comment to make.”
A source said that although the information was already in the public domain, the fact that it was now all in one place was concerning.
The sites are on a list of places located outside US borders whose loss could “critically impact the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the United States.”
In the cable, the US state department asks its embassies to reassess and update information about infrastructure and resources in each country whose loss could “immediately affect the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the United States”.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, a WikiLeaks spokesman, denied that the information would be useful to radical groups.
“While this cable details the strategic importance of assets across the world, it does not give any information as to their exact locations, security measures, vulnerabilities or any similar factors - though it does reveal the US asked its diplomats to report back on these matters,” he said.
Agencies