Cybergate: Leaked E-mails Hint at Corporate Hacking Conspiracy

reply to post by JacKatMtn


So in that case who is being hacked, and in what ways are they hacking them?

Originally posted by JacKatMtn


It looks like the roaches are scattering.. 2 of the 3 firms outed by the release of the emails have cut ties with HBGary Federal, and trying to profess their disgust with the companies plans..

Bank of America and the Chamber of Commerce basically pulled the "We didn't know" card..

I remember something about BoA back a few weeks ago assembling their own crew to handle the fallout from an expected Wikileaks release of some information about a major bank. Could this group of security firms have been their crew?

Could the plan ..

By hacking into the groups’ servers, the goal was to “discredit, confused, shame, combat, infiltrate, fracture,” the adversarial groups, according to the three firms’ proposal.

...be part of what Cass Sunstein implied last year when he wanted the Government to use it's resources to infiltrate websites?

While the folks who obtained this information will be investigated, found, arrested and prosecuted, shouldn't there be a new investigation surrounding the leaked information?

I think so, but I would have to agree with Glenn Greenwald when he writes..

“Cyberattacks are ‘crimes’ only when undertaken by those whom the government dislikes, but are perfectly permissible when the government itself or those with a sympathetic agenda unleash them,”

www.securitynewsdaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Thanks for posting this, our corporations and businesses are becoming a power themselves. You know businesses have becoming to big and powerful when they are building up their own spy agency/blackmail agency.

Ars Technica has posted a well-constructed narrative of the events Spy games: Inside the convoluted plot to bring down WikiLeaks along with screenshot's of HBGary's presentation and bill.

By 11:30pm on the evening of December 2, Barr had cranked out a PowerPoint presentation. It called for "disinformation," "cyber attacks," and a "media campaign" against WikiLeaks.

What could HBGary Federal do?

Computer Network Attack/Exploitation
Influence and Deception Operations
Social Media Collection, Analysis, Exploitation
Digital Media Forensic Analysis

Eventhough the security firm Palantir is saying otherwise now their presentation indeed lays out what plans they had


Forbes also have a well laid article which explains in brief what these firms and specially HBGary, Bank of America and US Chamber of Commerce were upto.
HBGary Execs Run For Cover As Hacking Scandal Escalates

The short version: It proposed services to clients like a law firm working with Bank of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that included cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns, phishing emails and fake social networking profiles, pressuring journalists and intimidating the financial donors to clients’ enemies including WikiLeaks, unions and non-profits that opposed the Chamber.

and more

I’ve written earlier about HBGary’s proposal to Bank of America’s law firm, in partnership with fellow security firms Palantir and Berico Technologies, to weaken WikiLeaks with cyberattacks and false documents as well as tracing and threatening its donors and supporters. But new information surfaced Monday about other shady approaches the firm suggested. As part of the company’s pitch to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, HBGary Federal’s Barr offered tactics like mining Classmates.com for information about a target individual’s friends, then building fake Facebook pages to gain access to subject’s personal details. He and Hoglund also discussed using spear phishing, a technique that typically plants malicious software on a user’s machine with a carefully spoofed email message.

Bank of America, the Chamber of Commerce, Palantir and Berico have all since released statements that say they’ve ended their relationship or never had a formal relationship with the company.

If anyone wants to read all his leaked emails they are now available here hbgary.operationfreedom.ru...

As for Bank of America and US chambers...they've discontinued relations with HBGary...but only because they got caught. This whole debacle and seeing HBGary going down with BOA, Chamber's and other security firms running for cover brings a sweet tingly smile on my face an accurate description of it would be this


>>
Here's what HBGary booth had to show at the recent RSA conference


Story also covered in article HBGary withdraws from RSA after embarrassing 'Anonymous' hack

Interesting techniques, makes you wonder how many times they have been used in the past.

I think back to the Rathergate/Bush AWOL controversy, fed to the news media under strange circumstances and designed to stop the conversation about his poor service record after the instant debunk.

By Dan Horn The Cincinnati Enquirer Jesse Tuttle, a computer hacker better known as 'Hackah Jak.' (Joseph Fuqua II photo) | ZOOM | Jesse Tuttle was sure he had made a good deal two years ago when he agreed to help the government safeguard sensitive computer systems against hackers, thieves and terrorists. For Tuttle, a computer hacker known around the world as "Hackah Jak," it was the chance of a lifetime. The deal would help him avoid prosecution on computer hacking charges and would pay him to do something he loves: search the Internet for vulnerable computer systems. If he found one, he says, he wrote a report about it for the FBI in Cincinnati. "He is a genius with computers," says Tuttle's lawyer, Firooz Namei. "He was basically the eyes and ears of the FBI on this world that no one knows exists." But Tuttle's Internet sleuthing ended in May, when Hamilton County sheriff's deputies charged the 23-year-old Camp Dennison man with breaking into the county's computer network and accused him of storing child pornography on his home computer. Tuttle says his work with federal authorities explains everything, and that he was arrested because one government agency didn't know what another was doing. But the FBI isn't talking and county officials stand by Tuttle's arrest. Tuttle's case is the product of an intensifying cyber war between hackers and law enforcement officials around the world. It's a high-tech war with high stakes.

www.enquirer.com...
----
I'm annoyed at how far this all goes.

reply to post by JacKatMtn


Anonymous is legion. They don't forgive and they don't forget. They are the evil of humanity re purposed for good.

Something new all together.

You can say that some will be arrested and persecuted, but it's not going to stop them. It's quite literally its own demi-religion. Those arrested are like the suicide bombers. The cause doesn't stop because they died for it.

The American government fails to see the true issue at hand if they think they can shot a gun at anonymous and it will die. It's a hoard. You're a democracy that governs them. You do not fight them. You recognize your slave master and do what it says, or you are dead.

Originally posted by JacKatMtn

Originally posted by soficrow


...That's the whole idea behind Wikileaks and Anonymous - to expose the crimes perpetrated by our lofty leaders - so they can be held accountable.

Agreed, but if I remember correctly evidence obtained illegally is inadmissible in court? If that is the case, how do these exposed crimes/conspiracies ever end with justice?

Only evidence illegally obtained by government entities is automatically inadmissible in court. The rest has to be ruled on as to admissibility. A couple of years ago, I was approached to work as a private citizen partnered up with an official entity specifically because "civilians" can get away with some things that cops can't. This group wanted to cover both ends of that spectrum by working as a team. It didn't "smell" quite right to me, so I turned the job down.

Another thing to consider is that a judge somewhere has to rule on admissibility of evidence. Judges as a rule work for a government entity, so it's not hard to figure out who would likely make the "rules" in this specific case - unless an exceptional judge were found to hear it.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by JacKatMtn

 

I would think that, while the hacked data is inadmissible, now that the information contained therein is public domain, that could be used as probable cause for obtaining warrants which probably will lead to other evidence, such as computers, data records, etc.

~Heff

The information within is still classified information. It is NOT public domain. It's been leaked to the public, that does not make it public domain. Songs are often stolen, through P2P actions... that doesn't make them public domain. Just wanted to clear that up if someone hasn't already.

reply to post by SilentKillah


Corporate records are not considered "classified". They are simply private documents, and are subject to fourth amendment protections and legalities.

~Heff

Originally posted by Gorman91
reply to post by JacKatMtn

 

Anonymous is legion. They don't forgive and they don't forget. They are the evil of humanity re purposed for good.

Something new all together.

You can say that some will be arrested and persecuted, but it's not going to stop them. It's quite literally its own demi-religion. Those arrested are like the suicide bombers. The cause doesn't stop because they died for it.

The American government fails to see the true issue at hand if they think they can shot a gun at anonymous and it will die. It's a hoard. You're a democracy that governs them. You do not fight them. You recognize your slave master and do what it says, or you are dead.

edit on 16-2-2011 by Gorman91 because: (no reason given)

I agree with this poster...
Anonymous is probably going to play a bigger role in the Razing of the US more than Wikileaks.
Anonymous is probably the best thing the internet has spawned so far.
A group of scumbags (your next-door neighbors) who are willing to unite for a bigger cause. It's a beautiful thang

I was checking out Peter B Collins pod cast to and thought I would pass this along ...Chamber of Commerce Goons Plot Cyberwar with Chamber’s Critics!
peterbcollins.com...

Brad Friedman of Bradblog.com and Kevin Zeese from StoptheChamber.com detail the newly exposed plan to disrupt and discredit critics of the US Chamber of Commerce. This is quite a story–cyber security experts who have worked for our government and the powerful DC law firm, Hunton & Williams (H & W)–are exposed plotting against Chamber critics and WikiLeaks supporters via the release of thousands of emails by hackers known as Anonymous. “Team Themis” is comprised of 3 cyber security firms– Berico, Palantir and HBGary Federal; the emails and attachments included detailed info on Friedman and Salon.com writer Glenn Greenwald, along with plans to improperly collect Facebook data on them and others, and to plant false information with WikiLeaks and others that could be used to discredit them. While the Chamber claims it didn’t know about the efforts, the emails suggest that the Chamber retained H & W to collect bids for the disinformation campaign, and the vendors were planning to charge $2 million per month for managing the Chamber’s sophisticated attack plans....peace

Originally posted by JacKatMtn
reply to post by Hefficide

 

I don't think so... the wikileaks stuff may be more legal considering the whistleblower aspect..

Anonymous admitting that they acquired the data illegally (hacking), makes it inadmissible IMO..

Now if anonymous was smart.. and not so ready to boast of discoveries like this, could have leaked it anonymously to media, wikileaks, cryptome etc.. and it may have been a different story.

Maybe some calls for Congress to open an investigation? I wonder if the government could actually be investigated by it's own agencies using the same provisions of the Patriot Act they use on the citizens?

I still think the oath our soldiers take says that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;

Wouldn't those security firms fall under the domestic? wouldn't their exposed plans be domestic cyberterrorism?

Doesn't seem a stretch to think so..

The Oath of Enlistment also states "I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me". However the Oath of Office does not have that statement.

However, investigations could be opened on the government personnel, BUT with consequences. See that information still being classified is not legally supposed to be viewed by anyone without 1) proper clearance, and 2) the need to know. So all of the people that have viewed it have committed a felony already. So... those people that decide to open an investigation don't have the need to know and thus have committed a felony themselves. It's unlikely that anyone within the government will stand up unless the President himself decides to start a "team" of cleared people to do so.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by SilentKillah

 

Corporate records are not considered "classified". They are simply private documents, and are subject to fourth amendment protections and legalities.

~Heff

Sorry... I thought that the previous statement was regarding the wikileaks information. Disregard.

EDIT: I'm a bit confused with what's going on here... I have to start over to fill in the gaps. Please forgive me.

Eh, I doubt they will find any one person from anonymous. These people are smart and are probably behind multiple proxies, and who knows what else to cover their tracks. The funny thing is I bet most of the people involved are between the ages of 15-25. Reading through the chat messages with the ceo of hbgary that was posted yesterday, one of them said she was a 16yo girl.... glad i havent *issed these people off.

I'm laughing at this. (It is related)

yfrog.com...

reply to post by JacKatMtn


Why do people listen to thus crap?

We have to do illegal actions
To provide the truth, its the only manner and actually working scheme.

Hello, surely some of the folks here have run across this:

search.hbgary.anonleaks.ru...

It's a search engine that had been used for filtering out the results of Anonymous's hacking escapades.
Well not anymore, the site is now seemingly offline, I wonder who may have facilitated this, and why they could possibly have wanted to do that. lol

Who knows these days.