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Persona Management

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Persona Management, Search WikiLeaks. Manipulating net discourse in the 21st Century. HBGary. HBGary is subsidiary company of ManTech International, focused on technology security.

HBGary

In the past two distinct but affiliated firms had carried the HBGary name: HBGary Federal, which sold its products to the US Federal Government,[3] and HB Gary, Inc.[4] Its other clients included information assurance companies, computer emergency response teams, and computer forensic investigators.[5] On February 29, 2012, HBGary, Inc. announced it was acquired by IT services firm ManTech International.[6] At the same time, HBGary Federal has been reported to be closed.[6] History[edit] The company was founded by Greg Hoglund in 2003.[1] In 2008, it joined the McAfee Security Innovation Alliance.[5] The CEO made presentations at the Black Hat Briefings, the RSA Conference, and other computer security conferences.[7][8] HBGary also analyzed the GhostNet and Operation Aurora events.[3][7] As of 2010, it had offices in Sacramento, California, Washington, D.C., and Bethesda, Maryland.[2] Fallout[edit]

37 - hbgarys-high-volume. The enormous corpus of email leaked from federal security contractor HB Gary following Anonymous's hacking of the company's servers continues to deliver compromising payloads.

37 - hbgarys-high-volume

This time, it's internal emails detailing the creation of "persona management" software to simplify the process of pretending to be several people at once online, in order simulate widespread support for a point of view -- astroturfing automation software. The software appears to have been developed in response to a federal government solicitation seeking automated tools for astroturfing message boards in foreign countries. Persona management entails not just the deconfliction of persona artifacts such as names, email addresses, landing pages, and associated content. It also requires providing the human actors technology that takes the decision process out of the loop when using a specific persona. For this purpose we custom developed either virtual machines or thumb drives for each persona. 38 - Exclusive: Military’s ‘persona’ software cost millions, used for ‘classified social media activities’ By Stephen C.

38 - Exclusive: Military’s ‘persona’ software cost millions, used for ‘classified social media activities’

WebsterTuesday, February 22, 2011 17:49 EDT Most people use social media like Facebook and Twitter to share photos of friends and family, chat with friends and strangers about random and amusing diversions, or follow their favorite websites, bands and television shows. But what does the US military use those same networks for? Well, we can’t tell you: That’s “classified,” a CENTCOM spokesman recently informed Raw Story. One use that’s confirmed, however, is the manipulation of social media through the use of fake online “personas” managed by the military.

These “personas” were to have detailed, fictionalized backgrounds, to make them believable to outside observers, and a sophisticated identity protection service was to back them up, preventing suspicious readers from uncovering the real person behind the account. When Raw Story first reported on the contract for this software, it was unclear what the Air Force wanted with it or even if it had been acquired.

36 - Army of fake social media friends to promote propaganda. It's recently been revealed that the U.S. government contracted HBGary Federal for the development of software which could create multiple fake social media profiles to manipulate and sway public opinion on controversial issues by promoting propaganda.

36 - Army of fake social media friends to promote propaganda

It could also be used as surveillance to find public opinions with points of view the powers-that-be didn't like. It could then potentially have their "fake" people run smear campaigns against those "real" people. As disturbing as this is, it's not really new for U.S. intelligence or private intelligence firms to do the dirty work behind closed doors. EFF previously warned that Big Brother wants to be your friend for social media surveillance. While the FBI Intelligence Information Report Handbook (PDF) mentioned using "covert accounts" to access protected information, other government agencies endorsed using security exploits to access protected information. CENTCOM. Cubic Corporation. Barret Brown. Jeremy Hammond. Alexa O'Brien. Shilling. A Conversation With Jeremy Hammond, American Political Prisoner Sentenced to 10 Years. Jeremy Hammond, the Chicago activist and hacktivist (an activist who uses computer networks for political protests and other actions), was sentenced last week to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release for hacking into the intelligence contractor Strategic Forcasting (or Stratfor) and other government, law enforcement and military suppliers’ websites.

A Conversation With Jeremy Hammond, American Political Prisoner Sentenced to 10 Years

The Stratfor hack resulted in a cache of 5.2 million leaked emails and account information for approximately 860,000 Stratfor subscribers and clients, including information from 60,000 credit cards. To list a few of the many revelations, the emails revealed domestic spying on activists, including Occupy Wall Street; surveillance through persona management programs or fake online personas (“sock puppets”); and attempts to link American activist and journalist Alexa O’Brien to al-Qaeda. The Stratfor hack pullled back the curtain on the ofttimes illegal goings-on in the shadowy world of intelligence contractors.

Mr. JH: Yes. Geopolitics, propaganda & puppet actors. Conflict of interest. Twitter Bots (Internet Censorship) Media Manipulation - The Five Eyes. NSA Programs.