Writing for CSO online, guest blogger Nick Selby sums up Barr's boneheadedness:
I don't know much about law enforcement, but I do think that, if you're planning, say, to serve a felony warrant, it's a bad idea to phone ahead and let the guy know you'll be by in 15 minutes. ... Criminals generally engage in criminal enterprises for the money (few people have a driving passion to establish, say, an industry-leading counterfeiting ring for the societal benefit), and those who stand between criminals and their goal risk the ire of the criminals. … Now, stating in a newspaper that you possess the secret identity of a criminal? This falls squarely into the category of "standing between a criminal and his goal." That's a tip, kids. Write it down. To paraphrase Wendy in A Fish Called Wanda, one only briefs the public on an upcoming law enforcement action if one is congenitally insane or irretrievably stupid.
Anonymous also published somewhere between 44,000 and 60,000 emails between HBGary and its corporate/government customers. And what was inside those emails was an eye-opener.
It seems HBGary was working with Bank of America on a plan to take down WikiLeaks –- and, strangely, CNN and Salon commentator Glenn Greenwald, whom it deemed instrumental to WikiLeaks' continued existence, along with a handful of other prominent journalists.
HBGary was one of five firms allegedly involved in the discussion, along with law firm Hunton & Williams, data-gathering firms Palantir and Berico, and consultants Booz Allen Hamilton. Business Insider published the slides this group prepared for BofA. It's pretty chilling. To quote slide 5:
Glenn was critical in the Amazon to OVH [hosting] transition…It is this level of support that needs to be disrupted. These are established professionals that have a liberal bent, but ultimately if pushed most of them choose professional preservation over cause, such is the mentality of most business professionals. Without the support of people like Glenn wikileaks [sic] would fold.
What do you suppose they meant by "pushed"? As in, over a cliff?
That presentation suggests strategies such as sowing dissension within the WikiLeaks org, disinformation (submitting false documents to WikiLeaks in order to discredit it), cyber attacks against WikiLeaks' service providers, a media smear campaign, and "using social media to profile and identify risky behavior of [WikiLeaks] employees."
Does that last one sound like blackmail to you?
HBGary is trying to sell the idea that Anonymous falsified some of the documents, but I doubt anyone's buying it. Palantir has already publicly apologized to Greenwald and severed its ties with HBGary, which suggests the information contained in that leak is accurate.
To recap: A massive U.S. corporation is targeting whistleblowing websites and mainstream American journalists, with the help of several data/security/consulting firms with strong ties to the U.S. government. It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood summer blockbuster. It's not.
So tell me: Who are the white hats and who are the black hats here?
Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to get a lot more bumpy from here on out.
Does all this corporate hacking hack you off too? Vent your spleen below or email me: cringe@infoworld.com.
This article, "2011: The year hacking goes mainstream," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Track the crazy twists and turns of the tech industry with Robert X. Cringeley's Notes from the Field blog, and subscribe to Cringely's Notes from the Underground newsletter. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.