Most of you all prolly saw this but it's still kinda nifty:
"A feud between a security contracting firm and a group of guerrilla computer hackers has spilled over onto K Street, as stolen e-mails reveal plans for a dirty-tricks-style campaign...And it wasn't a solo operation; two other outfits were in on the "proposals". One in particular caught my eye: "...Palantir chief executive Alex Karp, a self-described progressive...The move was in retaliation for assertions by HBGary Federal chief executive Aaron Barr that he had identified leaders of the hackers' group, which has actively supported the efforts of anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks to obtain and disclose classified documents...
The e-mails revealed, among other things, a series of often-dubious counterintelligence proposals aimed at enemies of Bank of America and the US Chamber of Commerce... The proposals included distributing fake documents and launching cyber-attacks... ...Several of the documents focus on ChamberWatch, a union-backed organization that criticizes the business lobby and many of its members. The documents include personal details about activists who work for the group and suggestions for targeting its reputation, including planting fake documents, tying the organization to radical activists or creating "fake insider personas" on social media.
ChamberWatch, one memo said, is "vulnerable to information operations that could embarrass the organization and those associated with it..."
severed ties with the lead firm HBGary Federal, and placed on leave an engineer involved in the project pending a review."-- Cue the echo chamber --
"Palantir does not make software that has the capability to carry out the offensive tactics proposed by HBGary... Palantir never has and never will condone the sort of activities recommended by HBGary."
Comments (7)
The comments at the Stiftung about Palantir's "progressive" ...errr, ahhh... "image" were ...uhhh, hmmm... interesting. Almost funny.
So much "progressive" character in serving domestic and foreign espionage. It's really "holistic" and "people-centric," isn't it?
If it makes a buck, it has to be ethical!
Posted by CF Oxtrot | February 19, 2011 2:34 PM
Posted on February 19, 2011 14:34
I love these Anonymous people not least for their wonderfully nasty, gloating messages when they hack a system. Unfortunately I can't find the one they left for HBGary online. I'd seen it via a Twitter link.
This particular hack is very lovely. Apparently they got hold of some of their code too. I reckon HBGary is ruined.
Interesting times.
Posted by mikegirard | February 19, 2011 5:04 PM
Posted on February 19, 2011 17:04
Posted by MJS | February 19, 2011 5:59 PM
Posted on February 19, 2011 17:59
Here's the message they left when they took control of HB Gary.
http://www.glennbecktoday.com/raidz/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/em14R.jpg
So much to love.
'It would appear that security experts are not expertly secured'
These people are too cool for words.
Posted by mikegirard | February 20, 2011 1:07 AM
Posted on February 20, 2011 01:07
Off-topic (or back to previous topic)
"Those who stop a revolution half-way are digging their own graves."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110219/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_labor_activist
Posted by senecal | February 20, 2011 11:44 AM
Posted on February 20, 2011 11:44
st just
just the type of man
who's avatar could ignite the egyptian masses
Posted by op | February 20, 2011 1:07 PM
Posted on February 20, 2011 13:07
The move was in retaliation for assertions by HBGary Federal chief executive Aaron Barr that he had identified leaders of the hackers' group, which has actively supported the efforts of anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks to obtain and disclose classified documents...
That's what gets me. Anyone in the media with an ounce of common sense should have stood up and called him on his bullshit. It always amuses me to see the ways in which both the private and public sectors of 'law enforcement' assume that anything they're up against must be equally as hierarchical as they are themselves. Thus Osama bin Laden is credited as being the leader of a worldwide terrorism network, when in reality there is a loose collection of groups with little or no operational relationships, Anonymous is credited with a hierarchy when it's a loosely structured group of crackers on the internet, and the Black Bloc and other affinity groups were all said by the bourgeois press to be "led" by primitivist John Zerzan.
Posted by Nullifidian | February 23, 2011 9:46 AM
Posted on February 23, 2011 09:46