Firm in WikiLeaks plot has deep ties to Feds - Salon.com Mobile. It’s well known at this point that HBGary Federal was one of several technology firms recently exposed for scheming to attack WikiLeaks, Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, and critics of the Chamber of Commerce.
What has gotten less attention is just how much business HBGary Federal and its partner company, HBGary, do with the United States government. Internal HBGary Federal emails reviewed by Salon show that the firm was on its way to getting security clearance at the Department of Defense late last month. HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr has bragged that the firm provides “specialized threat intelligence, incident response, and information operations capabilities to the IC [Intelligence Community], DoD, and Federal agencies.” The exact nature of the services provided by HBGary Federal — and what intelligence agencies might be involved — is not clear. HBGary itself has won $3.3 million in federal government work since 2004, contracting records show. Salon - New information emerges on anti-WikiLeaks plot. Here’s an update on the unfolding story of the trio of technology firms that hatched a plan to attack WikiLeaks and their supporters in the press — including Salon’s Glenn Greenwald.
The plan was apparently prepared at the behest of Hunton and Williams, a large law firm working for Bank of America, which is worried because it is reportedly the subject of a future WikiLeaks document release. The plan (.pdf) was outlined in a slideshow prepared by the three security firms; it was obtained and released online by the group of pro-WikiLeaks hackers known as Anonymous. One of the three firms, Palantir Technologies, just announced that it has put an engineer who was involved in the project on leave “pending a thorough review of his actions.”
When this story broke last week, Palantir was quick to deny any involvement in the anti-WikiLeaks plan and to sever ties with one of the partner firms, HBGary, that had masterminded the plan. Here’s where a new wrinkle in the story comes into play. Salon - Leaked campaign. 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. One section of the leaked report focused on attacking WikiLeaks’ supporters and it featured a discussion of me.