Pro-WikiLeaks hackers reportedly cracked into the security firm targeting their group, HB Gary Federal, and released 50,000 internal e-mails.
Internal documents of a California computer security firm obtained by pro-WikiLeaks hackers have been made available online, suggesting various ways companies can help undermine the whistle-blowing website as it prepares to release material that could prove damaging to Bank of America and other financial entities.
A cyber tussle between the hackers, largely grouped under the banner of “Anonymous,” and the California security firm led to the leaked e-mails.
It has long been known that Bank of America and other financial institutions are the targets for the next batch of WikiLeak materials due for release.
Also check out The New York Times coverage of the news here. —JCL
Salon:
There’s a very strange episode being widely discussed the past couple of days involving numerous parties, including me, that I now want to comment on. The story, first reported in the Tech Herald, has been written about in numerous places (see Marcy Wheeler, Forbes, the Huffington Post, BoingBoing, Matt Yglesias, Reason, Tech Dirt, and others), so I’ll provide just the summary.
Last week, Aaron Barr, a top executive at computer security firm HB Gary Federal, boasted to the Financial Times that his firm had infiltrated and begun to expose Anonymous, the group of pro-WikiLeaks hackers that had launched cyber attacks on companies terminating services to the whistleblowing site (such as Paypal, MasterCard, Visa, Amazon and others). In retaliation, Anonymous hacked into the email accounts of HB Gary, published 50,000 of their emails online, and also hacked Barr’s Twitter and other online accounts.
Among the emails that were published was a report prepared by HB Gary—in conjunction with several other top online security firms, including Palantir Technologies—on how to destroy WikiLeaks. The emails indicated the report was part of a proposal to be submitted to Bank of America through its outside law firm, Hunton & Williams. News reports have indicated that WikiLeaks is planning to publish highly incriminating documents showing possible corruption and fraud at that bank, and The New York Times detailed last month how seriously top bank officials are taking that threat. The NYT article described that the bank’s “counterespionage work” against WikiLeaks entailed constant briefings for top executives on the whistleblowing site, along with the hiring of “several top law firms” and Booz Allen (the long-time firm of former Bush DNI Adm. Michael McConnell and numerous other top intelligence and defense officials). The report prepared by these firms was designed to be part of the Bank of America’s highly funded anti-WikiLeaks campaign.
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skepticism is good in this strange world. I agree with your handle.
My belief in JA and wikileaks is bolstered by what is being done to Manning, not to
mention the nefarious players against them both. The information seems to be
consistent with other dependable sources, and, of course, history, as I know it.
RE: By Litl Bludot, February 14 at 1:33 am Link to this comment It is very disturbing that this article has received so little comment here on
Truthdig, and of course, in the media. Disturbing but not surprising.
if you insist, I’ve yet to joint the Wikilemming brigade - still seems just too
good to be true - would be very pleased to see Citi, Chase, Ba, (et al) taken
down; but, am feeling the bankster logs will be as shallow as the war logs, and
may be used, in particular, to oust certain players no longer welcome at the
table, just as the war logs seem focussed on demonizing certain no-longer-
useful players in the ME, in particular Iran, Pakistan and North African
strongmen, such as Mubarak, who rejected the proposed alliance with Israel
and Saudi against Iran; so he gets the hook, via one more people-power color
revolution, stimulated by ‘leaks’ - all just looks too pat - call me a skeptic;
though no doubt I’ll again shortly be called many things far worse… what’s new,
typical TD ad homimen… so what?
By Chris, February 13, 2011 at 10:27 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I have now read numerous articles on this .... jeebus. I have to agree with another poster, what else is going on in the corporate world? They have no ethics or concern for anyone. Aaron Barr seems like a typical narcissist CEO. Interesting if you read about the husband and wife team (Penny Leavy & Greg Hoglund) running the parent company, HB Gary, you’ll find her IRC chats. Penney, Greg, and HB Gary are not involved (of course!!!) although emails show he is a part of it all and she was doing some interesting ‘lobbying’.
The attempts by gov’t and corporate interests to shut down wikileaks reveals
more about the authoritarian strains within the ruling class than any documents
coming out of the site have.
It could be a plotline straight out of 1984, for example, that paypal, mastercard
and others have denied consumers the ability to donate to wikileaks. Imagine if
Visa decided that certain books weren’t in the interests of their masters and
refused to allow them to be purchased with their card. After this, it’s not so far
fetched, is it?
Witnessing the machinery of power close in on Assange could be a catalyst for
activism. Instead, it’s another circle jerk for faux patriots, opportunistic
journalists, and self-(pre)serving politicos. The intelligence agencies of several
countries are high-five themselves with conspiratorial glee. And corporatists
everywhere are slap-happy with the discovery of whole new arena of control:
your pocket-book.
Assange has done an invaluable public service. He may have anticipated the
attacks against him, but it’s unlikely that he expected these attacks would so
plainly expose the men behind the curtain. That piece of irony may end up
costing him dearly.
BiG or SmaLL we Leak them all-Wiki or kinki Leaks are
for ever. Anyone, individual or group, that doesn´t
appreciate Julian, is a SECRET POLICE FAN AND EQUALITY
IS DEATH. Police State supporters, creeps, zombies and
other spooks in a suit, deserves our violence! JANET
Balloon Nepolitano ,MAFIA-TSA, Mussolini cheese cake
obese… It starts with Secret Police ends with Secret
Police, Schwarze Korp. is back, fusion and fema camps-
concentration camps, concentrating on WHAT? ON YOUI
I read the two Salon articles—one by Glenn Greenwald, one of the principal
journalistis targeted in the plan to assault wikileaks and the other by the senior
editor of the site—and found the documentation unassailable. There’s no
doubt that this illegal assault was put in play by Bank of America’s law firm, a
firm recommended to the bank by the DEPT OF JUSTICE!
I also read the powerpoint presentation that laid out the plan to bring wikileaks
down. Anyone who’s ever worked for a corporation will recognize the
rhetorical style.
None of this is surprising.
Corporations and huge profitable concerns have armed themselves with private
security that is backed by the govt ever since slavery. Overseers, managers, the
Pinkertons—they have a lot of power and are rarely brought to justice. Karen
Silkwood was murdered by corporate hitmen. Unions have been gutted now for
decades. The very regulations created to protect workers—and whistleblowers-
-have been neglected. If you are waiting for the new Consumer Finance
Protection Agency to help you wage a fight against JP Morgan Chase…I suggest
you seek alternatives.
Found out, you see these Pinkerton companies scrambling to distance
themselves from a clearly illegal operation. Even Bank of America is denying
complicity, stating it had nothing to do with this plan and never commissioned
it, never even read it. Do you believe that?
Thanks to ANONYMOUS, the hackers responsible for retaliatory denial of service
attacks on Mastercard, Paypal, Amazon, the documentation laying out the plan
to target journalists and others supportive of wikileaks is now in the public
domain and downloadable. It shows how easily mainstream media can be used
to front these kinds of attacks and also to manipulate you into thinking
something that is not true. Tomorrow you’ll believe that Julian Assange not
only raped these women, but he also has a sexual relationship with his mother
and lindsay lohan. Okay, you won’t believe it…but Glenn Beck will, who’ll also
convince his followers that Assange is in charge of the caliphate.
Democracy requires truthful dialogue based on fact. That’s possible only if
participants have access to information.
We are losing that fight. Punditry has risen to a such a level that truthful facts
are obscured if not lost forever, encrypted with only an elite few holding the
key. Wikileaks set out to seize that key and make the information public.
That’s a lot of power at stake and we can see the consequences—Manning is
put in eternal isolation where he is tormented daily; Assange was actually
hunted down by Metropol on the charge of QUESTIONING and braceleted for
life, forced to appeal forever his extradition on the charges of QUESTIONING.
Do you think you could do that with the help of a public defender?
I guess what I’m saying is that this story is smaller than it seems. It could
happen to you without you even knowing it. With a flick of the switch,
something could be found in error in your tax returns, or you could be arrested
for not paying a ticket in a timely manner. Suddenly your time is devoted to
fighting something innocuous instead of creating something beautiful or simply
just being.
So read the story, click the links, read the documents.
I cannot wait for firms like BofA to be crucified. Wall Street in general needs to fry…perhaps then endless wars and stupid support for Israel will finally end.
Attempts to squelch Wikileaks can hardly be called “tussles”. Who “surveilles” whom, and for what reasons is a key public decision that will have a crucial influence on the future.
WikiLeaks from the start has set forth its reasons for exposing harmful and unnecessary secrecy in government and business because such secrecy robs citizens of information they need to protect themselves from exploitation by being kept ignorant.
That both government and businesses wish to hide behind closed doors and therefore resent WikiLeaks attempts to “sow transparancy” is a disheartening proof that both government and business hold power over people by using secrecy to keep them uninformed and ineffectual.
The idea (proposed by one of the companies being paid to try to close down WikiLeaks) that “Without the support of people like Glenn (Greenwald of Salon.com), WikiLeaks would fold,” is ludicrous, but none the less potentially damaging.
WikiLeaks technological savvy is not exclusive to WikiLeaks. In fact, it is the ubiquitous wave of immediate and future possibilities. If not Wiki, then any number of other cyber-leakers will spring up, have sprung up, inevitably.
Beware of public agencies that don’t want you to know what they are doing, that want to shroud their activities. The only valid need for occasional secrecy is to protect human lives. Protecting secret political or financial power over others is oppression.
It is strange that our (democratic) governement can’t seem to get this idea into its head and procede to take advantage of fair and open methods. Instead, it finds itself defending the “cloak and dagger” manipulations of entrapment and torture.
It is hard to say whether stupidity or reactive fear causes some of our most educated government/ business officials to want to try to shut down the future and to punish WikiLeaks for enabling the world’s people to find out the truth of who is controlling them, at what cost and for what purposes.
Openness could teach us all how to move ahead together into a better world for everybody. Killing the message or the messengers is shortsighted.
So here we have a detailed expose of the one of probably many
campaigns to smear Wikileaks. I would hope that Truthdig would
edit more closely supposed “book reviews” written about Assange,
and or Wikileaks, and any other supposedly factual smear articles by
suspect journalists being employed by news corporations, the
government spook agencies, the BBC, The Guardian, etc. The links in
this article are great.
Quelle Surprise! Haiti on the Mend
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By Litl Bludot, February 14, 2011 at 3:13 pm Link to this comment
re fearnotruth
skepticism is good in this strange world. I agree with your handle.
My belief in JA and wikileaks is bolstered by what is being done to Manning, not to
mention the nefarious players against them both. The information seems to be
consistent with other dependable sources, and, of course, history, as I know it.
Though I am able to understand your viewpoint.
Report thisBy fearnotruth, February 14, 2011 at 4:30 am Link to this comment
RE: By Litl Bludot, February 14 at 1:33 am Link to this comment
It is very disturbing that this article has received so little comment here on
Truthdig, and of course, in the media. Disturbing but not surprising.
if you insist, I’ve yet to joint the Wikilemming brigade - still seems just too
Report thisgood to be true - would be very pleased to see Citi, Chase, Ba, (et al) taken
down; but, am feeling the bankster logs will be as shallow as the war logs, and
may be used, in particular, to oust certain players no longer welcome at the
table, just as the war logs seem focussed on demonizing certain no-longer-
useful players in the ME, in particular Iran, Pakistan and North African
strongmen, such as Mubarak, who rejected the proposed alliance with Israel
and Saudi against Iran; so he gets the hook, via one more people-power color
revolution, stimulated by ‘leaks’ - all just looks too pat - call me a skeptic;
though no doubt I’ll again shortly be called many things far worse… what’s new,
typical TD ad homimen… so what?
By Chris, February 13, 2011 at 10:27 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I have now read numerous articles on this .... jeebus. I have to agree with another poster, what else is going on in the corporate world? They have no ethics or concern for anyone. Aaron Barr seems like a typical narcissist CEO. Interesting if you read about the husband and wife team (Penny Leavy & Greg Hoglund) running the parent company, HB Gary, you’ll find her IRC chats. Penney, Greg, and HB Gary are not involved (of course!!!) although emails show he is a part of it all and she was doing some interesting ‘lobbying’.
emails are here”
Report thishttp://hbgary.anonleaks.ru/
By Litl Bludot, February 13, 2011 at 8:33 pm Link to this comment
It is very disturbing that this article has received so little comment here on
Report thisTruthdig, and of course, in the media. Disturbing but not surprising.
By WriterOnTheStorm, February 13, 2011 at 6:54 pm Link to this comment
The attempts by gov’t and corporate interests to shut down wikileaks reveals
more about the authoritarian strains within the ruling class than any documents
coming out of the site have.
It could be a plotline straight out of 1984, for example, that paypal, mastercard
and others have denied consumers the ability to donate to wikileaks. Imagine if
Visa decided that certain books weren’t in the interests of their masters and
refused to allow them to be purchased with their card. After this, it’s not so far
fetched, is it?
Witnessing the machinery of power close in on Assange could be a catalyst for
activism. Instead, it’s another circle jerk for faux patriots, opportunistic
journalists, and self-(pre)serving politicos. The intelligence agencies of several
countries are high-five themselves with conspiratorial glee. And corporatists
everywhere are slap-happy with the discovery of whole new arena of control:
your pocket-book.
Assange has done an invaluable public service. He may have anticipated the
Report thisattacks against him, but it’s unlikely that he expected these attacks would so
plainly expose the men behind the curtain. That piece of irony may end up
costing him dearly.
By Peter Knopfler, February 13, 2011 at 6:37 pm Link to this comment
BiG or SmaLL we Leak them all-Wiki or kinki Leaks are
Report thisfor ever. Anyone, individual or group, that doesn´t
appreciate Julian, is a SECRET POLICE FAN AND EQUALITY
IS DEATH. Police State supporters, creeps, zombies and
other spooks in a suit, deserves our violence! JANET
Balloon Nepolitano ,MAFIA-TSA, Mussolini cheese cake
obese… It starts with Secret Police ends with Secret
Police, Schwarze Korp. is back, fusion and fema camps-
concentration camps, concentrating on WHAT? ON YOUI
By gerard, February 13, 2011 at 1:58 pm Link to this comment
Mack 894: Thanks much!
Report thisBy mack894, February 13, 2011 at 12:41 pm Link to this comment
I read the two Salon articles—one by Glenn Greenwald, one of the principal
journalistis targeted in the plan to assault wikileaks and the other by the senior
editor of the site—and found the documentation unassailable. There’s no
doubt that this illegal assault was put in play by Bank of America’s law firm, a
firm recommended to the bank by the DEPT OF JUSTICE!
I also read the powerpoint presentation that laid out the plan to bring wikileaks
down. Anyone who’s ever worked for a corporation will recognize the
rhetorical style.
None of this is surprising.
Corporations and huge profitable concerns have armed themselves with private
security that is backed by the govt ever since slavery. Overseers, managers, the
Pinkertons—they have a lot of power and are rarely brought to justice. Karen
Silkwood was murdered by corporate hitmen. Unions have been gutted now for
decades. The very regulations created to protect workers—and whistleblowers-
-have been neglected. If you are waiting for the new Consumer Finance
Protection Agency to help you wage a fight against JP Morgan Chase…I suggest
you seek alternatives.
Found out, you see these Pinkerton companies scrambling to distance
themselves from a clearly illegal operation. Even Bank of America is denying
complicity, stating it had nothing to do with this plan and never commissioned
it, never even read it. Do you believe that?
Thanks to ANONYMOUS, the hackers responsible for retaliatory denial of service
attacks on Mastercard, Paypal, Amazon, the documentation laying out the plan
to target journalists and others supportive of wikileaks is now in the public
domain and downloadable. It shows how easily mainstream media can be used
to front these kinds of attacks and also to manipulate you into thinking
something that is not true. Tomorrow you’ll believe that Julian Assange not
only raped these women, but he also has a sexual relationship with his mother
and lindsay lohan. Okay, you won’t believe it…but Glenn Beck will, who’ll also
convince his followers that Assange is in charge of the caliphate.
Democracy requires truthful dialogue based on fact. That’s possible only if
participants have access to information.
We are losing that fight. Punditry has risen to a such a level that truthful facts
are obscured if not lost forever, encrypted with only an elite few holding the
key. Wikileaks set out to seize that key and make the information public.
That’s a lot of power at stake and we can see the consequences—Manning is
put in eternal isolation where he is tormented daily; Assange was actually
hunted down by Metropol on the charge of QUESTIONING and braceleted for
life, forced to appeal forever his extradition on the charges of QUESTIONING.
Do you think you could do that with the help of a public defender?
I guess what I’m saying is that this story is smaller than it seems. It could
happen to you without you even knowing it. With a flick of the switch,
something could be found in error in your tax returns, or you could be arrested
for not paying a ticket in a timely manner. Suddenly your time is devoted to
fighting something innocuous instead of creating something beautiful or simply
just being.
So read the story, click the links, read the documents.
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, February 13, 2011 at 11:26 am Link to this comment
The answer to an attack on transparency is MORE transparency. Shed sunlight on the rot and it dies.
Report thisBy BarbieQue, February 13, 2011 at 3:54 am Link to this comment
Very sad and instructive that this mind blowing post has only received 3 replies @midnight Sunday 2/12 while the other Wiki smear job has received 55.
In fact, even some Truthdiggers will either ignore the profound implications of these facts or click right by.
This is a “Conspiracy Theory” that turned into “Conspiracy Fact”.
And how many more of these operations are going on right now?
Do most people care?
Report thisBy Nozferatu, February 13, 2011 at 3:22 am Link to this comment
I cannot wait for firms like BofA to be crucified. Wall Street in general needs to fry…perhaps then endless wars and stupid support for Israel will finally end.
Report thisBy gerard, February 12, 2011 at 8:06 pm Link to this comment
Attempts to squelch Wikileaks can hardly be called “tussles”. Who “surveilles” whom, and for what reasons is a key public decision that will have a crucial influence on the future.
Report thisWikiLeaks from the start has set forth its reasons for exposing harmful and unnecessary secrecy in government and business because such secrecy robs citizens of information they need to protect themselves from exploitation by being kept ignorant.
That both government and businesses wish to hide behind closed doors and therefore resent WikiLeaks attempts to “sow transparancy” is a disheartening proof that both government and business hold power over people by using secrecy to keep them uninformed and ineffectual.
The idea (proposed by one of the companies being paid to try to close down WikiLeaks) that “Without the support of people like Glenn (Greenwald of Salon.com), WikiLeaks would fold,” is ludicrous, but none the less potentially damaging.
WikiLeaks technological savvy is not exclusive to WikiLeaks. In fact, it is the ubiquitous wave of immediate and future possibilities. If not Wiki, then any number of other cyber-leakers will spring up, have sprung up, inevitably.
Beware of public agencies that don’t want you to know what they are doing, that want to shroud their activities. The only valid need for occasional secrecy is to protect human lives. Protecting secret political or financial power over others is oppression.
It is strange that our (democratic) governement can’t seem to get this idea into its head and procede to take advantage of fair and open methods. Instead, it finds itself defending the “cloak and dagger” manipulations of entrapment and torture.
It is hard to say whether stupidity or reactive fear causes some of our most educated government/ business officials to want to try to shut down the future and to punish WikiLeaks for enabling the world’s people to find out the truth of who is controlling them, at what cost and for what purposes.
Openness could teach us all how to move ahead together into a better world for everybody. Killing the message or the messengers is shortsighted.
By Litl Bludot, February 12, 2011 at 7:52 pm Link to this comment
So here we have a detailed expose of the one of probably many
Report thiscampaigns to smear Wikileaks. I would hope that Truthdig would
edit more closely supposed “book reviews” written about Assange,
and or Wikileaks, and any other supposedly factual smear articles by
suspect journalists being employed by news corporations, the
government spook agencies, the BBC, The Guardian, etc. The links in
this article are great.