'Anonymous' Takes Down Security Firm That Threatened to Expose its Members

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379587,00.asp

On Sunday night, cyber vigilantes 'Anonymous' went full throttle against a security firm that claimed to know the identities of the group, which operates "Operation Payback" and reportedly includes members of the "/b/" bulletin board 4chan.org.

The hack exposed Social Security numbers, publicized private e-mails, deleted company files, replaced the phone system, and attacked the LinkedIn accounts of employees at California-based HBGary Federal, a security firm.

On Friday Aaron Barr, CEO of HBGary Federal, was quoted in the Financial Times as having identified the founding leaders of Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for recent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on companies that had severed ties with WikiLeaks. Anonymous was also allegedly responsible for shutting down pro-government Web sites in Egypt and Tunisia. Forbes said Barr was planning to sell the information to the FBI.

On Sunday evening at 6:30pm Eastern, the hackers appeared to take over Barr's Twitter account and tweeted: "IT BEGINS. THE ANONYMOUS HAND SWINGS FOR A LULZY B****SLAP. #anonymous #takeover #hbgary."

Soon enough, Barr's Twitter page was filled racial and sexual slurs and had published Barr's mobile phone and Social Security numbers. Furthermore, according to reports, HBGary.com was temporarily replaced with a message: "Let us teach you a lesson you'll never forget: don't mess with Anonymous." This letter has since been replaced by a holding page.

DailyKos also reported that Anonymous deleted the firm's backups and posted over 60,000 company e-mails on Pirate Bay.

Unlike the DDoS attacks for which Anonymous is usually known, the group said via Barr's Twitter account that it performed the hack by duping people to gain access into HBGary's system, a hacker technique known as social engineering.

In January, Anonymous declared "war" against police for arresting five men associated the Wikileaks-related attacks, including the Web sites of Visa, MasterCard, Amazon, and PayPal.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Me thinks this company is going to have problems selling it's services to federal agencies.... ya think?

lol!

-t

[pcosmar]

Two thoughts come to mind very quickly.
1. a "security" firm should understand security.
2. It might not be a good idea to threaten Anonymous,