Anonops #5: Anonymous en de MO-revoluties

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Over the last week, I've talked to some of those who participated in the HBGary hack to learn in detail how they penetrated HBGary's defenses and gave the company such a stunning black eye—and what the HBGary example means for the rest of us mere mortals who use the Internet.

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The tendency to relate past events to what is possible in the present becomes more difficult as the scope of the geopolitical environment changes. It is a useful thing, then, to ask every once in a while if the environment has recently undergone any particular severe changes, thereby expanding our options for the future.

Terminology, let alone our means of exchanging information, has changed to such a degree that many essential discussions in today's "communications age" would be entirely incomprehensible to many two decades ago.

As the social, political and technological environment has developed, some have already begun to explore new options, seizing new chances for digital activism - and more will soon join in. It is time for the rest of the world to understand why.

Service denied

When a release by WikiLeaks revealed the depravity of just how corrupt and horrid the Tunisian government really was, it prompted Tunisians to step up active dissent and take to the streets en masse for the first time.

In response, a loose network of participants within the international Anonymous protest organisation attacked non-essential government websites - those not providing direct services to Tunisians - at the prompting of our contacts.

Several such sites were replaced with a message of support to the Tunisian people, while others were pushed offline via distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, involving thousands of computer users who request large amounts of data from a website simultaneously, overwhelming it.

Other assistance programmes followed, even after the deposed Ben Ali fled the nation that reviled him, with Anonymous and other parties working with Tunisians - both in-country and abroad - to provide the nation's people with the tools and information resources they needed to begin building up new, reasonable political institutions capable of ensuring a freer civic life.

Our "Guide to Protecting the Tunisian Revolution" series - a collaboration between hundreds of veterans of traditional revolutionary movements as well as practitioners of "new activism" - were disseminated both online and in print; aside from tips on safety during confrontation and the like, these also explain how to establish secure yet accessible networks and communications for Tunisians, as well as instructions on establishing neighbourhood syndicates capable of uniting in common cause.

Already, such organisations are being established across Tunisia, just as they will be established elsewhere as the movement proceeds.

The seeds of cyber revolution

Anonymous is a means by which people across the globe can assist in the hard work being performed by the Tunisian people - who have long taken issue with their government, but first began protesting in earnest after a fruit vendor set himself ablaze in response to police cruelty.

The Anonymous movement itself grew out of message boards frequented mostly by young people with an interest in internet culture in general - and Japanese media in particular; in 2005, participants began "attacking" internet venues as a sort of sport, and in the process honed their skills in a way that proved useful in "information warfare".

In 2007, some users proposed that the Church of Scientology be exposed for its unethical and sometimes violent conduct, sparking a coordinated global protest movement that differed from anything else seen, and which still continues today.

The Australian government was later attacked for introducing new internet censorship laws, and in the meantime, those within Anonymous who see the subculture as a potential force for justice have launched other efforts while also building new strategies and recruiting individuals from across the globe - some of whom hold significant positions in media, industry, and the sciences.

For great justice

In the meantime, there are obstacles to overcome. Those within the Tunisian government who seek to deny liberty to "their" people are easy enough to deal with; the greatest threat to revolution comes not from any state but rather from those who decry such revolutions without understanding them.

In this case, the idea that a loose network of people with shared values and varying skill sets can provide substantial help to a population abroad is seen as quixotic - or even unseemly - by many of those who have failed to understand the past ten years, as well as those whose first instinct is to attack a popular revolt rather than to assist it.

Elsewhere, a number of US pundits decided to criticise the revolution as possibly destabilising the region; many of whom once demanded the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan - and greeted every Arab revolt as the work of President Bush - but now see nothing for themselves in the cause of Arab liberty.

Some have even portrayed the movement as the work of radical Islamists - yet most cannot find Tunisia on a map.

Suffice to say that the results of our efforts are already on display and will become more evident as Tunisians use our tools and resources to achieve their greatest triumph. Those who wish to assist and are competent to do so can find us easily enough; the Tunisians had little trouble in doing so.

Although we have made great progress in convincing individuals from across the world to join our efforts in Tunisia, other campaigns, such as those taking place in Algeria and Egypt - both of which have seen government websites taken down and/or replaced by Anonymous, more must be done before the movement takes the next step towards a worldwide network capable of perpetual engagement against those who are comfortable with tyranny.

The revolution will be broadcast

Whatever effort is required, such a goal is not only possible, but rather unambitious.

There is a reason, after all, that those of us who have seen the movement up close have dedicated our lives to what it stands for, and have even violated the modern Western taboo of believing in something.

I have been involved with Anonymous in some capacity or another for about six years.

Looking back at my writing over that time, I have found that my predictions, while always enthusiastic, nonetheless turned out to have been conservative; when Australia became the first state to come under attack by this remarkable force, I proposed that we would someday see such allegedly inevitable institutions begin to crumble in the face of their growing irrelevance.

Someday turned out to be this year.

Today, I predict that Anonymous and entities like it will become far more significant over the next few years than is expected by most of our similarly irrelevant pundits - and this will, no doubt, turn out to be just as much of an understatement as anything else that has been written on the subject.

The fact is that the technological infrastructure that allows these movements has been in place for well under a decade - but phenomena such as WikiLeaks and Anonymous have already appeared, expanded, and even become players within the geopolitical environment; others have come about since.

This is the future, whether one approves or not, and the failure on the part of governments and media alike to understand, and contend with the rapid change now afoot, ought to remind everyone concerned why it is that this movement is necessary in the first place.

The author identifies as part of Anonymous, a loose collective of internet hacktivists which uses the technological infrastructure on which the globalised world depends to maintain a vigilante presence online.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

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Just as HBGary was plotting to attack WikiLeaks, it was on the way to getting Defense Department security clearance

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.

(The plotting against WikiLeaks and Chamber of Commerce critics, by the way, was performed by HBGary Federal at the behest of Hunton and Williams, a law firm that has worked for the Chamber and Bank of America, which is reportedly a future target of WikiLeaks. This work was apparently separate from the HBGary Federal's government work.)

HBGary proper, which is based in California, is known as a provider of malware detection services. HBGary Federal, which shares offices with HBGary and 15 percent of which is owned by HBGary executives, was touted as offering "best-in-class malware analysis and incident response products and expert classified services to the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community and other U.S. government agencies," according to one November 2009 email. Another internal email describes HBGary Federal as a wholly owned subsidiary of HBGary.

HBGary itself has won $3.3 million in federal government work since 2004, contracting records show. That includes contracts for services like "protection vulnerability assessment" with the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the FBI, and the Department of Interior.

Having proper clearance is key to winning federal security contracts. So it's not surprising that the bio of HBGary Federal's chief operating officer, Ted Vera, notes that he holds "security clearances with the DoD and Intelligence Community." Barr, for his part, came to HBGary Federal after stints as a Navy cryptologist and a cybersecurity official at Northrop Grummans, the defense contracting giant. A former CEO of HBGary Federal, Jamie Butler, who left the firm in 2006, held a security clearance at the "top secret" level.

On Jan. 27 -- when the plotting against WikiLeaks had already been underway for a few months -- HBGary Federal was granted what's known as "facility clearance" at the Defense Department. That's a precursor to getting specific classified access once a contract has been granted. (See the approval document, approved by the Defense Security Service, here.) DSS spokeswoman Cindy McGovern told Salon today that HBGary Federal is still in the process of getting its clearance. She had no comment on the fact that HBGary is implicated in the WikiLeaks scandal.

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February 16, 2011, 09:39 AM —

Benjamin Spock de Vries would like the world to know he is not a cyber terrorist.

But if you read some of the 40,000+ emails that were stolen from HBGary Federal by Anonymous and posted on Pirate Bay, you might think otherwise.

It seems Aaron Barr -- the CEO of HBGary Federal who thought he’d make a big splash by outing the leadership of Anonymous and instead ended up getting ridden hard and put away wet by the very hackers he sought to expose -- decided de Vries is in fact the mysterious Commander X, alleged puppetmaster of the Anonymous collective. So he said as much in some of the thousands of private email conversations the Anons just shared with the world.

[ See also: That new Facebook friend might just be a spy ]

This did not make de Vries happy.

“I am not Anonymous,” de Vries told me during an agitated phone conversation last night. “I have never logged onto any Anonymous sites. I don’t use IRC. I couldn’t hack my way out of a paper bag.”

In fact, de Vries says he hadn’t even heard of the whole HBGary-Anonymous mishegas until Barr contacted him on February 5 via his Facebook alter ego, Julian Goodspeak (yes, really), and begged de Vries to please call off the DDOS attack on HBGary’s servers.

What attack? de Vries asked.

What followed was a weirdly elliptical conversation in which Barr chatted with the person he thought was Commander X while de Vries thought they were talking about something else entirely.

The reason Barr thought De Vries was the elusive X? Because de Vries is the founder and admin of a Facebook Group called Global Strike 2011, which appears to be popular with the Anons. That, or many of its members are just particularly enamored of Guy Fawkes masks and wicked cool handles like Anarcho Femmina and Anonomous AnonopsEsp (then again, who isn’t?).

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Thank you commander X. If
Thank you commander X. If anything, anon is responsible only for bringing this to my attention and making the evidence I need available to me. Mr. Barr has said "I wasn't going to tell anybody". Only PROVES that he is a habitual liar as well as all the other expletives that have been pointed in his direction this week. http://hbgary.anonleaks.ru/greg_hbgary_com/25982.html And yes, I fully intend to take the most aggressive legal action possible. I suppose my next step is to concoct some story about Aaron's paedophilia and operation of a child prostitution ring in DC and report that to the FBI. If he can do it and get away with it, so can I. I jest.
by Ben de Vries (not verified) on 2/16/11 at 6:17 pm | reply | Email this page | Printer-friendly version

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AMSTERDAM - De VS zijn medeverantwoordelijk voor het gemak waarmee landen als Egypte het internetverkeer kunnen afknijpen. Daarom heeft president Obama boter op zijn hoofd als hij de wereld een vrij internet belooft, vindt hoogleraar Computerveiligheid Bart Jacobs van de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. Als hij zijn eigen burgers niet wilde afluisteren en controleren, zou dat voor dictatoriale regimes ook een stuk moeilijker zijn.'Het goede nieuws is: ja, de Verenigde Staten kunnen het internet in het Midden-Oosten vrijer maken', zegt Jacobs. 'Maar dan moeten de Verenigde Staten wel bij zichzelf beginnen.' Dat is het slechte nieuws: Amerika is medeverantwoordelijk voor het gemak waarmee repressieve regimes hun burgers kunnen afluisteren en controleren via internet.

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It’s all very amusing, with this one tiny caveat. It’s apparent that Federal authorities in the US are entirely clueless about some basics about the operation of the internet and internet-based groups. The grand jury request for information in the current investigations of Anonymous is downright bizarre, including a reference to the “internet activist group 4chan” (yes, snarky, offensive image board as “activist group”), information on the “identification and locations of person(s) using or controlling or disseminating denial of service software” (um, your first port of call is Google, folks, because that’s the easiest way to find a version of LOIC), and the most remarkable demand of all, “any and all records, documents, and materials that relate to interactions between any computers of those who were raided and those who are untouchable.”

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Perhaps everybody around the globe who uses the Internet ought to email the FBI
with the subject “I am Anonymous”.

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Also, a major protest is planned for April 7th, on the steps of The City Hall with speakers from Anonymous, executive director of National Lawyers Guild, Gregg Housh, Barry Eisler, Glenn Greenwald, Barret Brown and other... special guests. Don't miss it!

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Three attorneys at Hunton & Williams, the international law firm that is implicated in a scheme to attack WikiLeaks and critics of the Chamber of Commerce, will be hit with bar complaints next week by anti-Chamber activists who were targeted in the scheme.

"It's a powerhouse law firm and if they're allowed to deal in this kind of illegal activity, what do ethics in the law mean?" asks Kevin Zeese, attorney for the group StopTheChamber.com. "These guys are openly talking about potentially criminal activities -- invading privacy, moving toward libel and slander and defamation of character -- by creating forged documents, tricking us to putting them out, and accusing us of putting out disinformation."

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Lessons In Transparency
The attacks on HBGary Inc. have become a little more mundane — lately, somebody keeps trying to make the company's fax machine run out of paper.

Butterworth says he doesn't know anything about the proposals revealed in the e-mails, but he doesn't think Anonymous has any right to brag about the information exposed.

"Before they decided to do what they did and break the law, they had no knowledge of what was in those e-mails, they had no knowledge of who we were," he says.

Butterworth makes it clear he's not about to take lessons in transparency from a group that calls itself Anonymous.

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I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of these posts, showing how Hunton & Williams asked “Themis” (the three firm team of HBGary, Palantir, and Berico Technologies) to apply counterterrorism approaches to combat First Amendment activities.

This particular installment comes from an early presentation and accompanying proposal Themis prepared for Hunton & Williams. These documents were attached to an email dated November 2, 2010 sent out by Berico Technologies’ Deputy Director. He explains that the presentation and proposal would be briefed to H&W the following day.

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The proposal also highlights the JSOC experience of one Palantir team member.

He commanded multiple Joint Special Operations Command outstations in support of the global war on terror. Doug ran the foreign fighter campaign on the Syrian border in 2005 to stop the flow of suicide bombers into Baghdad and helped to ensure a successful Iraqi election. As a commander, Doug ran the entire intelligence cycle: identified high-level terrorists, planned missions to kill or capture them, led the missions personally, then exploited the intelligence and evidence gathered on target to defeat broader enemy networks.

Berico’s statement (from their CEO, Guy Filippelli, whose experience as Special Assistant to the Director of National Intelligence was also highlighted in the proposal) denied they would proactively target any Americans and spun the project itself as “consistent with industry standards for this type of work.”

Berico Technologies is a technical and analytic services firm that helps organizations better understand information critical to their core operating objectives. Our leadership does not condone or support any effort that proactively targets American firms, organizations or individuals.

[snip]

Late last year, we were asked to develop a proposal to support a law firm. Our corporate understanding was that Berico would support the firm’s efforts on behalf of American companies to help them analyze potential internal information security and public relations challenges. Consistent with industry standards for this type of work, we proposed analyzing publicly available information and identifying patterns and data flows relevant to our client’s information needs.

Yet it was Berico Technologies’ Deputy Director who sent out these documents adopting a military targeting approach for responding to citizens engaging in free speech.

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My guess is that the reason that Palantir’s CEO practically fell out of his chair in his rush to apologize to Glenn was to prevent exactly this. He didn’t want Glenn or anyone else to take a closer look. These guys really are idiots.

If this really is the best intelligence money can buy and if these guys really are former veteran intel guys, it’s hardly any wonder that the Washington chorus of Who Could Have Ever Imagined has become as endless as 100 Bottles of Beer on The Wall…

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Even as the FBI was conducting its ongoing campaign of surveillance and armed raids against those of us involved in the Anonymous activist collective, that and other "law enforcement" agencies were simultaneously providing resources and work opportunities to a collection of federal contractors, which were themselves engaged in a variety of reckless and unethical activities to which they are now being held to account by the press, if not the government. Anyone who had written up such a situation as fiction would rightfully be thrown out of a publisher's office for having produced a work of fiction with such a ludicrous plot.
Aaron Barr, CEO of security firm HBGary Federal The advice of Aaron Barr, CEO of HBGary Federal, to fellow cybersecurity professionals: 'Roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.'

On the Saturday before last, an article appeared in Financial Times in which a certain Aaron Barr, head of US federal contractor HBGary Federal, claimed to have identified by name what he termed Anonymous's "leadership". We responded with a press release conceding defeat. The next day, our hackers infiltrated Barr's personal data as well as that of HBGary Federal and its parent company HBGary, thereafter releasing tens of thousands of company emails, as well as the very document that Barr had planned to sell to the FBI – a document that turned out to be both hilariously inaccurate and not-so-hilariously destined to get some undetermined number of innocents raided by government agents, despite them not having any connection to Anonymous whatsoever. We then released all of these materials ourselves, and in doing so revealed documents that included plans to collect information on the family members of political opponents of the US Chamber of Commerce, as well as a proposal to attack WikiLeaks and key supporter Glenn Greenwald by means of a range of unethical and possibly illegal tactics now being reported by media outlets world wide.

This farrago of embarrassments doesn't end there: shortly after the attack, I spoke to Barr via phone (the conversation is on record), during which the clearance-possessing federal contractor made misleading statements to me about his intentions in collecting information about activists who were meanwhile involved in providing assistance to pro-democracy campaigners in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. Later, as we and reporters went through the acquired emails and other data, we began to discover the full extent of the plans for surveillance and dirty tricks. We were left with an abiding sense of the sickness that plagues institutions that already spend millions on public relations lest they be considered on their merits.

As the story unfolds, Anonymous will continue to conduct the investigation that, in a more perfect world, would be immediately pursued by law enforcement agencies. Anonymous will likewise continue to work with the press and independent observers to reveal the truth of what US taxpayer dollars and corporate "emergency response" funds actually go to produce. Meanwhile, our opponents and antagonists will continue to lie to you. All we ask is that you compare our words and actions with theirs, and decide which of these two factions your conscience would prompt you to support.

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Op vrijdag 18 februari 2011 14:35 schreef Dhalsim het volgende:

[..]

Ge-wel-dig...ik denk dat de zogenaamde "security experts" voortaan wel 2x nadenken voordat ze enige vorm van victorie over anonymous gaan claimen. Het zal keer op keer leiden tot een dikke faal. Heeft naast kennis en kunde ook vooral te maken met motivatie.

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February 18, 2011, 01:10 PM —

On our last episode of Thank You For Not Sharing, I spoke with Ben de Vries, wrongfully accused by HBGary security wonk Aaron Barr of being the mysterious and elusive Commander X, alleged puppet-master behind the Anonymous collective.

(And if you’re not up to speed on the ongoing saga of HBGary and Anonymous, read this, this, and this. I’ll wait.)

It turns out Commander X is not that elusive, though he’s still somewhat mysterious. Because – unlike Aaron Barr -- I just enjoyed a long and fascinating chat with him.

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I'd like to switch to a few questions about HBGary, if that's alright. Have you ever had any contact with Aaron Barr or anyone else from HBGary?

Aaron Barr knows better than to contact me. Trust me, he is losing sleep waiting for what comes next. His life is basically destroyed now. And he deserves it. As for what else I could do to Mr. Barr, that is for me to delight in and him to lose sleep over.

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Interesting take...
Thanks to both of you for the interesting interview. It got me thinking...

Stuxnet: I'll take the opinions of experience people that looked at the source that Stuxnet was a team (or two teams) effort with no firm guiding hand. We don't even know whether the source released was the initial deploy or an update. But we can make a pretty good guess that it was a government project, considering the target. Governments like to build weapons... and that's my point.

Maybe most of the malicious maulware out there came from government programs. Criminals use the ones that ecscape into the wild for their own nefarious purposes. The criminal mind is all about fast money and little work. They don't have the patience or motivation to write good code.

The whole HBGary Saga only proves out what I've thought for years. That governments just couldn't allow the internet to exist without having as much control over it as they can.

Almost all serious internet disruptions have been caused by governments. Burma, Nepal, Egypt and targeted filtering in many other countries are a direct result of government control. Anonymous' DDoS campaigns pale in comparison. If we have to stop anything here, we need strong laws curtailing governments from interfering with the free flow of information. But since they MAKE the laws...

It's not that 'hackers' don't create or use malicious code. Sometimes their are very good reasons to use such tactics; like taking down a pedophile network because the authorities wouldn't except my evidence, is one example I have personal experience with. In the end I was right and Re: HBGary, a case where 'stolen' information led to conviction.

So I have no qualms whatsoever at the tactics used by Anonymous against HBGary and my (white) hat goes off to you, with respect.

I know who the 'enemy' is and I trust CommanderX knows too. I hope enough other people get the message. Critical mass is important in this debate

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Eerie as that may be, more perplexing, however, is a federal contract from the 6th Contracting Squadron at MacDill Air Force Base, located south of Tampa, Florida, that solicits providers of "persona management software."

While there are certainly legitimate applications for such software, such as managing multiple "official" social media accounts from a single input, the more nefarious potential is clear.

Unfortunately, the Air Force's contract description doesn't help dispel their suspicions either. As the text explains, the software would require licenses for 50 users with 10 personas each, for a total of 500. These personas would have to be "replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent."

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https://www.fbo.gov/index(...)b2&tab=core&_cview=1
Solicitation Number:RTB220610
Notice Type:Sources Sought
Synopsis:
Added: Jun 22, 2010 1:42 pm Modified: Jun 22, 2010 2:07 pmTrack Changes
0001- Online Persona Management Service. 50 User Licenses, 10 Personas per user.
Software will allow 10 personas per user, replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent. Individual applications will enable an operator to exercise a number of different online persons from the same workstation and without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries. Personas must be able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world and can interact through conventional online services and social media platforms. The service includes a user friendly application environment to maximize the user's situational awareness by displaying real-time local information.

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AN OPEN LETTER FROM ANONYMOUS

February 16, 2011

TO THE CONGREGANTS OF WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH:

We, the collective super-consciousness known as ANONYMOUS - the Voice of Free Speech & the Advocate of the People - have long heard you issue your venomous statements of hatred, and we have witnessed your flagrant and absurd displays of inimitable bigotry and intolerant fanaticism. We have always regarded you and your ilk as an assembly of graceless sociopaths and maniacal chauvinists & religious zealots, however benign, who act out for the sake of attention & in the name of religion.

Being such aggressive proponents for the Freedom of Speech & Freedom of Information as we are, we have hitherto allowed you to continue preaching your benighted gospel of hatred and your theatrical exhibitions of, not only your fascist views, but your utter lack of Christ-like attributes. You have condemned the men and women who serve, fight, and perish in the armed forces of your nation; you have prayed for and celebrated the deaths of young children, who are without fault; you have stood outside the United States National Holocaust Museum, condemning the men, women, and children who, despite their innocence, were annihilated by a tyrannical embodiment of fascism and unsubstantiated repugnance. Rather than allowing the deceased some degree of peace and respect, you instead choose to torment, harass, and assault those who grieve.

Your demonstrations and your unrelenting cascade of disparaging slurs, unfounded judgments, and prejudicial innuendos, which apparently apply to every individual numbered amongst the race of Man - except for yourselves - has frequently crossed the line which separates Freedom of Speech from deliberately utilizing the same tactics and methods of intimidation and mental & emotional abuse that have been previously exploited and employed by tyrants and dictators, fascists and terrorist organizations throughout history.

ANONYMOUS cannot abide this behavior any longer. The time for us to be idle spectators in your inhumane treatment of fellow Man has reached its apex, and we shall now be moved to action. Thus, we give you a warning: Cease & desist your protest campaign in the year 2011, return to your homes in Kansas, & close your public Web sites.

Should you ignore this warning, you will meet with the vicious retaliatory arm of ANONYMOUS: We will target your public Websites, and the propaganda & detestable doctrine that you promote will be eradicated; the damage incurred will be irreversible, and neither your institution nor your congregation will ever be able to fully recover. It is in your best interest to comply now, while the option to do so is still being offered, because we will not relent until you cease the conduction & promotion of all your bigoted operations & doctrines.

The warning has been given. What happens from here shall be determined by you.

WE ARE ANONYMOUS.
WE ARE LEGION.
WE DO NOT FORGIVE.
WE DO NOT FORGET.
EXPECT US.

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#operaciovalencia OPERATION

@operacio_tv3



Valencian government has taken down a legal Television channel (TV3).

This is unnacceptable.

FINISHED ---- 18 february 2011; 18:30h (GMT+1)

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February 17, 2011
HBGary, Inc. is nearing the completion of our immediate incident response process as well as providing requested information to our Customers and partners following the recent criminal attacks. I want to assure the community that HBGary, Inc. remains strong, both financially and operationally. This event has made HBGary, Inc. even more committed to our work and in fact has further clarified our corporate vision. This crime shows even companies with fully patched systems are but a single credential away from compromise.

With regard to the incident itself, let me assure you that we have performed a full forensic investigation of the incident and are making appropriate upgrades to our operational security. The product development network has been, and always will be, air-gapped from all other networks. We have also determined, as expected, that no commercial source code was accessed or stolen.

With regard to some of the information that came to light as a result of the publishing of stolen information, I want to assure you that your HBGary team did not participate in the development of the proposals that have been the focus of media attention. As most of you know, HBGary, Inc. and HBGary Federal are separate companies and have different management. The media confusion around this point has been unfortunate and we have been working diligently to correct it.

I would like to thank everyone who reached out to us with encouraging words during this ordeal. The outpouring of support has shown that the security community is willing to take care of its’ own. HBGary, Inc. is going to return the favor by redoubling our efforts in advanced malware detection technology. I would especially like to thank the employees of HBGary, Inc. for their strength and personal dedication. Everyone at HBGary, Inc. is ready to get back to business as usual.

Sincerely,

Greg Hoglund
Chief Executive Officer
HBGary, Inc.

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http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/15tKmN/www.webpronews.com/topnews/2011/02/18/ps3-hackers-respond-to-sonys-threats
Earlier, Sony threatened those who hack their PlayStation 3s with permanent banishment from their Playstation Network. Naturally, some of these would-be hackers didn't take too kindly to Sony's threats, and have responded with perhaps another hack that threatens to make a mockery of Sony's method of punishment.

According to a post at Destructoid.com, some PS3 hackers have found a way to exploit an security hole that allows them to unban the banned accounts. Not only that, but this exploit will allow these same hackers to actually other PlayStations, provided the pertinent information is available.

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On November 16, 2009, Greg Hoglund, a cofounder of computer security firm HBGary, sent an e-mail to two colleagues. The message came with an attachment, a Microsoft Word file called AL_QAEDA.doc, which had been further compressed and password protected for safety. Its contents were dangerous.

"I got this word doc linked off a dangler site for Al Qaeda peeps," wrote Hoglund. "I think it has a US govvy payload buried inside. Would be neat to [analyze] it and see what it's about. DONT open it unless in a [virtual machine] obviously… DONT let it FONE HOME unless you want black suits landing on your front acre. :-)"

The attached document, which is in English, begins: "LESSON SIXTEEN: ASSASSINATIONS USING POISONS AND COLD STEEL (UK/BM-154 TRANSLATION)."

It purports to be an Al-Qaeda document on dispatching one's enemies with knives (try "the area directly above the genitals"), with ropes ("Choking… there is no other area besides the neck"), with blunt objects ("Top of the stomach, with the end of the stick."), and with hands ("Poking the fingers into one or both eyes and gouging them.").
The purported Al-Qaeda document

But the poison recipes, for ricin and other assorted horrific bioweapons, are the main draw. One, purposefully made from a specific combination of spoiled food, requires "about two spoonfuls of fresh excrement." The document praises the effectiveness of the resulting poison: "During the time of the destroyer, Jamal Abdul Nasser, someone who was being severely tortured in prison (he had no connection with Islam), ate some feces after losing sanity from the severity of the torture. A few hours after he ate the feces, he was found dead."

According to Hoglund, the recipes came with a side dish, a specially crafted piece of malware meant to infect Al-Qaeda computers. Is the US government in the position of deploying the hacker's darkest tools—rootkits, computer viruses, trojan horses, and the like? Of course it is, and Hoglund was well-positioned to know just how common the practice had become. Indeed, he and his company helped to develop these electronic weapons.

Thanks to a cache of HBGary e-mails leaked by the hacker collective Anonymous, we have at least a small glimpse through a dirty window into the process by which tax dollars enter the military-industrial complex and emerge as malware.

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Onlangs werd bekend dat het Amerikaanse beveiligingsbedrijf HBGary Federal in opdracht van Bank of America serieuze plannen had om WikiLeaks ‘onschadelijk te maken’. Dat weten we dankzij een groepje supernerds dat vooralsnog anoniem wenst te blijven, maar die we inmiddels beter kennen als Anonymous.

Maar dat was niet het einde van de cyberthriller (of is het een soap?) waarin HBGary Federal, WikiLeaks en Anonymous een hoofdrol spelen. Nog steeds laat Anonymous een gestage stroom privémails uit de archieven van HBGary lekken. We geven hier een (heel summiere) samenvatting van wat er zoal aan smerigheid uit die mails naar voren is gekomen (Infoworld.com heeft ook een fijne samenvatting):

quote:

SueVerinity says:
Gisteren, 15:38:59
“Ik denk dat Aaron Barr beter had moeten weten; tenslotte als je jezelf de titel security-expert toekent zou je je de risico's moeten beseffen die aan het infiltreren van een groep "hackers" kleven. Overigens de namen in Barr's PDF (waaronder ook ondergetekende..) geven geen goed beeld van de werkelijkheid. Ongeveer 30 van mijn Facebook-vrienden en ikzelf die sympathie voelen voor Wikileaks en Anonymous, worden door Barr geportreteerd alszijnde "leiders van Anonymous", hetgeen klinklare onzin is. Ik kan zelf niet eens een DVD-recorder programmeren, laat staan dat ik kan hacken. Ook deze assumptie van Barr is dus onjuist. Dit geldt voor de meeste van de 30 genoemde personen in Barr's "research". Het enige waar wij "schuldig" aan zijn is het speuren naar en verspreiden van informatie omtrent Wikileaks en Anonymous. Ik nodig de FBI en welke andere overheidsinstantie dan ook van harte uit te pogen mij te vervolgen op grond van het hebben van een uitgesproken mening. Het enige wat Barr heeft getracht is om Facebook-accounts te koppelen aan Nicknames in de zgh. IRC-chatrooms over Anonymous en ook hierin is hij niet goed geslaagd. Diegene(n) die de hack uiteindelijk hebben gepleegd ken ik niet persoonlijk en zijn ons spontaan te hulp geschoten nadat Barr's malafide en kwalijke intenties aan het licht kwamen. Hiervoor ben ik hen zeer dankbaar en ik hoop dat het een goed voorbeeld is geweest van de mogelijke consequenties voor anderen die Anonymous ten onrechte in een kwaad daglicht willen stellen. De geloofwaardigheid van zowel HBGary/HBGary Federal en Aaron Barr zijn gedaald tot nul. Verder komen er nu tal van sinistere feiten over hen boven tafel waaruit blijkt dat zij zich schuldig maken aan diverse duistere projecten (Magenta) en complotten (samen met Palantir en Bank of America). Als iemand iets te verbergen heeft/had zijn het wel Barr en bovengenoemde bedrijven en niet Anonymous. In conclusie: Barr is meer dan in gelijke munt terugbetaald en heeft tienvoudig gefaald in zijn onderzoek.

quote:

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/buffett-closes-out-his-bank-of-america-stake/?scp=2&sq=hbgary&st=cse

Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company run by Warren E. Buffett, sold off its remaining five million shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter.

quote:

Robert Charleston
San Francisco, CA
February 15th, 2011
6:47 am

I wonder if the is just in time.....is he anticipating the Wikileaks information about BofA coming out soon? With all the drama this past weekend involving HBGary, BofA and Anonymous, it is only a matter of time until BofA faces some serious public backlash. How does Buffet always stay one step ahead?

quote:

http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/4936/VK-Dossier-Onrust-in-het-Midden-Oosten/article/detail/1836488/2011/02/19/Libie-regime-legt-internet-plat.dhtml

TRIPOLI - Het internet in Libië is zaterdag kort na middernacht (Nederlandse tijd) platgelegd om de antiregeringsbetogers tegen te werken. Libië was 'abrupt offline' om kwart over een zaterdagochtend vroeg. Dat heeft Arbor Networks, een in de VS gevestigde volger van internetactiviteiten, zaterdag gemeld.

Het regime van de 68-jarige Muammar Kaddafi bezwoer vrijdag alle protesten de kop in te drukken. Betogingen werden donderdag met grof geweld neergeslagen. Vooral jongeren gingen de straat op. Ze hielden met mobieltjes en sociale media als Twitter en Facebook contact met elkaar. Dissidente Libiërs in het buitenland moedigden hen aan.

Gedood
De Libische veiligheidstroepen en -diensten hebben de afgelopen drie dagen van protesten in het land zeker 84 mensen gedood. Dit berichtte zaterdag de organisatie Human Rights Watch (HRW). De mensenrechtenorganisatie baseert zich op telefoongesprekken met hulpverleners, ziekenhuispersoneel en ooggetuigen.

De meeste slachtoffers vielen in Benghazi. De stad ligt in het oosten van het land waar de afkeer van het regime sterker is. In Benghazi zijn laat op vrijdag nog 35 mensen door de veiligheidstroepen gedood.

De betogingen tegen de dictatuur van kolonel Kaddafi (68) in het noordoosten van Libië en naar verluidt ook in wijken van de hoofdstad Tripoli, zijn voor zover bekend de hevigste sinds hij in 1969 als majoor de macht greep. Afgezien van monarchieën is hij de langst regerende leider van een land. Hij heeft overigens geen officiële functie maar wordt onder meer als de 'Broederlijke Leider' en 'Gids van de Revolutie' aangeduid. In zijn jargon regeren 'de massa's' het land, onder meer met behulp van volkscomités en volksmilities.

quote:

Access to the internet in Libya was cut off at 1.18am Libyan time (23.18 GMT Friday) but appears to have been partially restored by 8.01am, according to the internet monitoring service Renesys.

At the moment, spot checks of Libyan domains and traceroutes into affected networks indicate that connectivity has been restored and Libya is back on the internet.

Libya appears to be following the cue of the Egyptian authorities who cut off internet access during the protests that ousted Hosni Mubarak from the presidency.

quote:

http://truthdive.com/2011/02/16/Anonymous-hackers-release-decrypted-version-of-Stuxnet-worm-online-Security-experts.html

Washington, Feb 16 (ANI): US security experts have claimed that the computer hackers’ collective Anonymous has released a decrypted version of the Stuxnet worm that had affected Iran’s nuclear power program in December last year, online.

The ones and zeroes that make up the code called the Stuxnet worm, described as the most sophisticated cyberweapon ever created, were reportedly found when Anonymous volunteers hacked the servers of HB Gary Federal, a U.S. security company that sells investigative services to companies.

The attack was being carried out as revenge for claims by the company’s chief executive Aaron Barr that he had successfully infiltrated the cyber protest network and discovered details of its leadership and structure.

Fox News quoted security experts as saying that the leaked code was a serious cause for concern.

Insisting that the group of anonymous “hacktivists” released a decrypted version the Stuxnet worm, which could act almost like a building block for cybercrooks, Michael Gregg, chief operating officer of cybersecurity firm Superior Solutions, said: “There is the real potential that others will build on what is being released.”

“As an attacker you need to understand how something works. The better you understand how it works the easier it is to build something similar that servers the same purpose. The decompiled code the group made available is in that sense akin to a recipe book for disaster,” he said.

“With the right tools-and these guys have shown themselves more than once to be a fairly technical bunch of individuals-then it gives others a cookbook to start modifying,” Gregg added.

Careful examination of the Stuxnet worm by security analysts have shown it to be a cybermissile designed to penetrate advanced security systems. It was equipped with a warhead that targeted and took over the controls of the centrifuge systems at Iran’s uranium processing center in Natanz, and it had a second warhead that targeted the massive turbine at the nuclear reactor in Bashehr, the report said.

Dave Aitel, CEO of Immunity Inc., however, drew a fine line to distinguish between the version of the worm that destroyed Iran’s nuclear plant and the code released by Anonymous.

“What they’ve released is essentially incomprehensible,” Aitel said, adding that what the group found was far removed from the raw worm that has been “travelling around Iran destroying nuclear things.” (ANI)

quote:

Op donderdag 17 februari 2011 11:47 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
De b-sides stand:
[ afbeelding ]

quote:

We are Anonymous. We are everywhere. And we fight for freedom. We fight for free speech. We fight against censorship. Together with the citizens of the world we are strong. The actions of the regimes will not be forgotten, nor will they be forgiven.
Anonymous hears those cries, and we will assist in bringing to justice those who commit criminal acts against the innocent. We will not remain silent and let these crimes against humanity continue.

Say no to Censorship and dictatorship.

Join Us. Spread news.



Al Jazzera Live Stream

Anonymous News Network

Twitter

Anonops.tk

IRC

Anonops.ru

Arabnews

We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.

quote:

andreas70 RT @AnonymousLeaks: HBGary Physical Memory Forensics for Intrusion http://cryptome.org/0003/hbg/HBG-PMF-CI.zip (zip, 2.3mb) #AnonLeaks #HBGary

quote:

andreas70 RT @AnonymousLeaks: HBGary Foreign Activity of 10.18.0.44: http://cryptome.org/0003/hbg/HBG-10-18-0-44.zip (zip, 1.7mb) #AnonLeaks #HBGary

quote:

# 6687267e-42c4-4da5-8f56-ef5e113e245b_normal aTokersInsight RT @AnonymousIRC: https://github.com/Laurelai/decompile-dump-asm | Here is another decompile of a more complete #Stuxnet binary. #HBGary #AnonLeaks about 1 hour ago via Twitterfall

quote:

Op zaterdag 19 februari 2011 22:50 schreef Golzuam het volgende:

[..]

Google translate kan dat :

quote:

ern_malleyscrub about an hour ago
Well, I realise now how wrong I've been. Hackers bad, Bible good. Okay. Thanks Hate Mongers.

quote:

Op zondag 20 februari 2011 11:12 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Westboro Babtists hebben er zin in!

http://twitpic.com/41oqa0

[ afbeelding ]

[..]

quote:

by February 20, 2011 2:00 AM EST
Let me be VERY clear - this does not originate with Anonymous, and hopefully Anon will continue to ignore them.

The Anon website which "announced" this uses free posting. This was posted by WBC.

Again - the letter from "Anonymous" to WBC was posted by WBC themselves. And within an extremely short time there was a "response", challenging Anon to come.

This is a publicity stunt by WBC. They hope triggering an attack with Anon will bring them cred. Or at least the Streisand Effect.

Please don't help WBC with this horrid attempt at publicity. Don't buy in, don't let others buy in, and do be disgusted at the lengths Phelp and co. will go for face time.

quote:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/20/wikileaks-baer-tax-avoidance-hbgary

In January 2008, someone uploaded to WikiLeaks a cache of documents, including hundreds of pages of internal correspondence of a major Swiss bank, Julius Baer. On closer inspection, the cache appeared to show that large amounts of money – sums ranging from $5m to $100m per person – were being, er, shielded in the Cayman Islands from tax authorities in various jurisdictions.

It was all, of course, perfectly legal: wealthy people put capital into trusts based in the Cayman Islands. This allows them lawfully to avoid paying tax on profits from investments, because legally those profits belong to the trust which, as a Cayman "resident", itself pays no tax. But the trustees can distribute money to the trust's beneficiaries, who may be residents of the UK and indeed, for all I know, pillars of society or even members of the Tory party.

Legal it may be, but mostly these folks don't like knowledge of their ingenious wheezes to enter the public domain. It's so vulgar, don't you know. And the banks that handle their money like it even less. So Julius Baer went apeshit about the leaks. Its lawyers persuaded a judge in California to shut down wikileaks.org and that, it thought, was that.

You can guess what happened. In no time at all, mirrors of the WikiLeaks site popped up everywhere. The First Amendment crowd in the US started taking an interest. Suddenly, the whole world knew about Julius Baer's wealth-management services. The California judge had second thoughts, wikileaks.org was restored and CBS News reported the decision under the headline "Free speech has a number: 88.80.13.160" – the IP address of the WikiLeaks site. And a major Swiss bank retired to lick its wounds.

What's instructive about the Julius Baer case is how clueless the bank and its agents were about the net. They looked like blind men poking a tiger with a stick. It was amusing at the time, but it was too good to last. It was inevitable that the corporate world would wise up and in the past few weeks we've begun to see some of the results of that re-education process. And it ain't pretty.

What's driving things now is the conjecture that the next big WikiLeaks exposé concerns Bank of America. And deep in the lush undergrowth of corporate America, security, consulting and PR companies have perceived lucrative business opportunities in helping putative WikiLeaks targets get their retaliation in first.

We got a glimpse of this twilight world when the activist group Anonymous hacked into the servers of an internet security firm, HBGary Federal, and posted on the internet a huge cache of internal emails. Some of these messages discuss how the firm, in conjunction with two other companies, Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies, might pitch for work from the law firm that represents Bank of America and other prominent outfits.

Among the ideas discussed is a focus on WikiLeaks supporters in the media such as Glenn Greenwald of salon.com. "I think we need to highlight people like Glenn Greenwald," writes Aaron Barr of HBGary in an email dated 3 December 2010 and reproduced on salon.com. "Glenn was critical in the Amazon to OVH transition [in which WikiLeaks moved to another hosting service after being dropped by Amazon] and helped WikiLeaks provide information during the transition. It is this level of support we need to attack. These are established professionals that have a liberal bent, but ultimately most of them if pushed will choose professional preservation over cause, such is the mentality of most business professionals. Without the support of people like Glenn, WikiLeaks would fold."

One of the most interesting documents unearthed by the Anonymous attack is a PowerPoint presentation outlining the proposed pitch and the competencies of the three companies involved. Among the "Potential Proactive Tactics" is "Cyber attacks against the infrastructure to get data on document transmitters… Since the servers are now in Sweden and France putting a team together to get access is more straightforward."

Since the story broke, Palantir has apologised to Mr Greenwald and severed its contacts with HBGary. Shortly afterwards Berico did the same. HBGary issued a terse, non-committal statement when withdrawing from a trade show. The company did not respond to phone and email queries about the authenticity of Mr Barr's message of 3 December.

I could go on, but you will get the point. Bank of America and its lawyers are, of course, horrified by all of this and point out that they have had nothing whatever to do with it. Which is just as well, because they may soon have their hands full dealing with other matters.

quote:

I can tell you for a fact that PR "operatives" from the US are presently controlling at least 20 fake personae for posting on the Guardian site.

Global corporations have only begun to awaken to the fact that their kissing cousins in the PRC can control the internet, and they are ready to implement the "free" version of that in the West. See this link for software that USG is purchasing for Persona Management. This system will allow a single "worker" in some PR firm in downtown Manhattan to "appear" to be ANYBODY in the world and control many dozens of ANYBODIES as they push the Corporate Line here and EVERYWHERE.

https://www.fbo.gov/index(...)b2&tab=core&_cview=1

Good bye open and free internet. Hello Great Corporate Wall.

quote:

Also you can see here that a UK company called UK Plus Logistics Services Ltd is prepared to supply this Persona Management Software to any corporation that wants it.

https://www.fbo.gov/index(...)tab=ivl&tabmode=list

Now we who post here can compete with fully ananomized and MULTIPLIED PR Operatives who are paid to snuff out any anti-corporate opinions that we might have.

quote:

The Internet "kill switch" has been removed from legislation intended to soften the blow of a catastrophic cyberattack on the United States, but civil rights activists say nothing's changed.

Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Calpers (D-DE) introduce a revised version of their cybersecurity bill this week, entitled the “Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act,” which they say prohibits any possibility of an Internet ‘kill switch” — they swear.

Like the original bill, which was introduced last month, this version is intended to establish an office within the Executive branch that will handle the “coordination” of governmental responses to a “catastrophic” cyber attack against the United States infrastructure, according to a statement by Sen. Collins.

“The emergency measures in our bill apply in a precise and targeted way only to our most critical infrastructure,” Sen. Collins said Thursday. “We cannot afford to wait for a cyber 9/11 before our government finally realizes the importance of protecting our digital resources.”

If passed, the bill would give the president the ability to declare a “national cyberemergency,” which would give the government the authority to seize privately owned computer systems. What the new bill does not include, however, is the “authority to shut down the Internet” — i.e. an Internet “kill switch.”

“We want to clear the air once and for all,” said Sen. Lieberman in a statement. “There is no so-called ‘kill switch’ in our legislation because the very notion is antithetical to our goal of providing precise and targeted authorities to the president. Furthermore, it is impossible to turn off the Internet in this country.”

According to civil and technology rights activists, like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), concerns over the powers granted to the federal government in the bill remain.

“The president would have essentially unchecked power to determine what services can be connected to the Internet or even what content can pass over the Internet in a cybersecurity emergency,” EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston tells CNet about the new bill. “Our concerns have not changed.”

Debate over the bill comes only a short time after the government of Egypt shut down nearly all access to Internet and mobile phone connections amidst anti-government protests in that country. In addition, it was reported this week that the US Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security accidentally shut down 84,000 domains as part of an operation to stop the exchange of child pornography and counterfeit goods.

quote:

Dear Phred Phelps and WBC Phriends,

So we've been hearing a lot about some letter that we supposedly sent you this morning. Problem is, we're a bit groggy and don't remember sending it. Our best guess is that you heard about us on that newfangled TV of yours and thought we might be some good money for your little church.

You thought you could play with Anonymous. You observed our rising notoriety and thought you
would exploit our paradigm for your own gain. And then, you thought you could lure some idiots into a honeypot for more IPs to sue.

This is not so foreign to us; as you may have heard, we trade in Lulz. You just do not have enough to offer right now.

While Anonymous thanks you for your interest, and would certainly like to take a break and have some fun with you guys, we have more pressing matters to deal with at the moment.

But, we will keep this application on file, and will certainly contact you if any openings become
available in future.

Next time, don't call us. We'll call you.

Additionally, as your "Press Release" failed to understand: When Anonymous says we support free speech, we mean it. We count Beatrice Hall among our Anonymous forebears: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Do some among our number hate you and your cynical exploitation of your human rights for monetary gain? Of course. But the MoralFags are also the first to admit that they are, in fact, your rights to exploit.

In closing, let us assure you: We are not BAWWWING sissies, nor are we afraid of your false god; we're just really busy. Stay tuned, and we'll come back to play another day.
We promise.

To the Media: Just because it was posted on AnonNews doesn't mean every single Anon is in
agreement, in fact in this case it doesn't even mean a single Anon is in agreement. Next time, if you could give us a few minutes to put all our paperwork in order, we'll be sure to let you know what we're up to. (LOL)

To Anonymous: It's a trap. They've got their ports wide open to harvest IPs to sue. Don't DDoS, and boycott Operation Westboro. If you really want to continue messing with them, just send them a few male prostitutes and faxes of goatse. Nothing more.

(Note: This letter was written by more than 20 Anons, at the same time, and none of them were inbred family members. Unlike that other, shitty "Press Release".)

We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.

quote:

So, anonymous. One idiot has decided to post a press release against Westboro? I have a bad feeling about this operation. Everyone's watching us now, but this bullshit is taking away valuable resources that could be used, you know, actually fighting dictators, not failtrolls? THINK BEFORE YOU SAY SOMETHING STUPID.

But there's no way Anonymous can go back on it's word now. So, I, a good old /b/tard, will help guide you newfags to succeeding in this assault, trolling them in the best way possible, without getting pwned in the worst way possible.

RULE #1: DO NOT CONDUCT DDoSes.

Yeah, you may be thinking, WTF? Don't think I'm going full moralfag and telling Anonymous to stop. Read on.

Listen to me first. The Westboro Baptist Church are professional trolls. Not only are they the same level as /b/, they make all their money from suing people who fight back, so they're just waiting for IPs to sue. I have a bad feeling that it's all a trap, made by them so they can get some money and attention.

And it's not just that DDoSes pose a safety risk. A DDoS is useless, it's just a symbolic act. It doesn't do any damage, and it gives them undeserved media attention.

I ask you, anons, to stop and put this tactic back in the bookshelf. The costs are too high for a gain that is too low.

TL;DR: Don't DDoS. The site is likely a honeypot, it's a waste of time, and plus, we've got safer, better tactics. Read on.

RULE #2: GO CLASSIC ANON.

Now, I envy you kids with your newfangled DDoSes, and yer operations against entire countries, and your newfound lulz.

Back in my day, we didn't have that sort of thing. If we were going to do shit, it we could only ruin the lives of a single person, such as a cat abuser or an asshole like that.

Here are some of our tactics. You've heard about sending a fuckton of pizzas to people. But anon is crafty, and has a lot of other methods.

Also, here are the WBC's addresses for sending mail: http://pastebin.com/sJ8evZPA

(Note: These methods are so easy a caveman could do it. Even taking over a facebook account is just some script kiddie shit. Just remember to use a proxy or Tor, and iCall/skype for phone.)

* Send them a lots of free boxes/tampons/diapers. (skill level: NEWFAG)
* Go to some bookstore, and grab all those business reply cards, write their address, and then put it in your mailbox. (skill level: NEWFAG)
* Send them some free faxes of goatse and other shocking images (skill level: NEWFAG
* Call some prostitutes to go to their address. Preferably male. (skill level: NewFAG)
* Spam their emails with pictures of goatse, and basically this site: http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Pain_Series (skilllevel: EASY)
* Take over their facebook accounts, and then post gay porn all over it.How2RAID facebook: http://i.imgur.com/dCWQu.png (skill level: EASY)
* Send a link to a known FBI Child Predator honeypot. (Skill level: EASY)

Those are just the tip of the iceberg. More methods and how to do them are here:

http://insurgen.cc/index.php?title=Ruin_Life_Tactics

4chan's information library is here. This is anonymous's greatest repository of information.



http://www.megaupload.com/?d=pn732x0b
RULE #2: Be careful.

I have every reason to believe this was a trap. They want more people to sue, so they posted an operation to attack their site.So please, Don't DDoS. Use anon's good ol' life-ruining methods.

Stay safe, anon. And rape their asses in the most unpredicable ways possible.

quote:

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/71567

According to Anonymous, Westboro Baptist Church was behind the Open Letter allegedly from Anonymous, and then added fuel to the flames with WBC's "Bring it" reply. Anonymous warns don't DDoS, it's a trap to collect IPs for suing.

Twitter is on fire with the news of an upcoming troll-on-troll feud of Anonymous vs. Westboro Baptist Church. In case you missed it - in an Open Letter, Anonymous allegedly told the anti-gay, fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church to stop the hate now or else "the damage incurred will be irreversible" and "neither your institution nor your congregation will ever be able to fully recover." The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) struck back, telling Anonymous to "bring it!" and that God hates "lousy hackers."

In-between the two, this other Open Letter from Anonymous gained less attention, but told WBC that Anonymous knew it was a trap, and the short-on-money, thrive-on-attention WBC was in fact behind the first Open Letter supposedly from Anonymous.

WBC has made an awful name for themselves with their hate preaching, pushing the limits of freedom of speech with their hate speech. Many Christians find WBC's messages extremely far from Christ-like. Some would call WBC the ultimate IRL (in real life) trolls for such vile acts as provoking mourners outside of funerals for servicemen and women killed in combat. While picketing soldier's funerals, they hold signs such as "Thank God For Dead Soldiers." WBC, led by Rev. Fred Phelps, also picketed funerals of six Arizona shooting victims and are notorious for their anti-homosexual messages and "God Hates Fags" signs.

Shortly after WBC threw down the gauntlet, and Twitter was set ablaze about the oncoming war, an emergency press release was posted on AnonNews which urged Anonymous not to use DDoS attacks.

Before I could break out the popcorn and settle in to watch the fight, Anonymous News Network posted on Facebook, "V: I was just gonna ignore this for a good long while because it was a stupid call, but looks like Westboro Baptist Church (of "GodHatesFags.com" fame) wants to pick a fight with Anonymous. They're attention-whoring idiots. Meanwhile, on the IRC, a channel #OpWestboro has been started to discuss what to do. It's come down to either overwhelming force or ignoring them entirely: no middle ground."

And then, in perhaps the ultimate slap in the face or just for lulz, Anonymous seemed to yawn at WBC while telling them, "Next time, don't call us. We'll call you."

Anonymous released a press release warning others within Anonymous that it's a trap and urging them not to fall into honeypots meant gather IPs for WBC to sue. It also mentions that Anonymous supports free speech, quoting Beatrice Hall, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Who knows what may end up happening, or what WBC may do next, trolling for dollars, to try to provoke Anonymous and keep themselves in the media spotlight.

quote:

HBGary Windows Rootkit Analysis Report

This report focuses on Windows Rootkits and their affects on computer systems. We also suggest that combining deployment of a rootkit with a BOT makes for a very stealth piece of malicious software.

quote:

From: MICHAEFM
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 9:39 AM
To: 'aaron@hpgary.com'
Subject: Capabilities

Hi Aaron,
Jerry tells me you have some interesting and timely capabilities. Please call me ASAP (703)482-3107.

Regards, MFM

quote:

Incoming mail for ucia.gov is handled by two mail servers at cia.gov.

quote:

Anon_Lobo RT @tunatrawler: It's ok my fellow #anonymous. Westboro Baptish Church don't require more than just me. Go on about the good work. I got this one. Ribbit U C

quote:

Beste heer van Kralingen,

Wij zijn in staat om near-real time de hele Nederlandse social media te
monitoren, trends hierin te analyseren en de meest effectieve
contra-strategie te bepalen.

Dit kan nuttig zijn wanneer uw eigen organisatie 'onder vuur' ligt, maar
we zijn ook bereid om voor u de aanval in te zetten hoor.

Binnen onze organisatie werken mensen die professioneel werkachtig zijn op
het gebied van psy-ops (psychologische oorlogsvoering). Deze kunnen zeer
effectieve campagnes opzetten, black-ops, net waarom de klant vraagt.

Er is geen enkele restrictie aangaande de opdrachten die wij aannemen,
zolang het maar binnen de Nederlandse wet blijft. Graag promoten wij uw
religie of zetten we een haat-campagne op.

Met vriendelijke groeten,

Lxxxxxxx

> LS.
>
> "Anderszijds dreigen de rede, het fatsoen en de waarheid soms het
> onderspit te delven in een vloedgolf van "Tendentieus, ongefundeerd en
> nodeloos kwetsend" verbaal geweld."
>
> En hoe denken jullie dat probleem op te lossen? Door professioneel leugens
> te verspreiden? Kan ik gebruik maken van jullie diensten om een religie te
> pluggen? Of buitenlander-haat?
>
>
> Met vriendelijke groeten,
>
> Gerard van Kralingen.

quote:

Op maandag 21 februari 2011 20:28 schreef LXIV het volgende:

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Je denkt toch zelf niet dat ik de heer van Kralingen een mailtje terugstuur zonder eerst te kijken wie dat is? Jouw fobo is de eerste hit op google bij "Gerard van Kralingen"!

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Op maandag 21 februari 2011 20:41 schreef LXIV het volgende:

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Je gelooft toch niet werkelijk dat het op deze manier werkt? Dat zou contra-productief zijn. Het gaat gewoon om het 'debunken' van roddels en lasters die bedrijven of andere organisaties ernstig kunnen schaden.

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Op maandag 21 februari 2011 21:17 schreef LXIV het volgende:

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Ik wist toch aan wie ik het stuurde!

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blairisawarcrim RT @Anony_Ops: Radio Payback : Online | Now live with: proSI | Tune in @ http://bit.ly/fpHt0P #Anonymous

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http://www.topix.com/religion/scientology
Actress Karla Zamudio joins Jason Beghe and director Paul Haggis in publicly departing the controversial Church of Scientology.

Ms. Zamudio’s spokesperson states “Karla left Scientology because she felt that the organization had become overbearing and actually interfered with her personal life, career, and spiritual growth.” Ms. Zamudio’s spokesperson further added “for Karla, Scientology had become more about profit and recruiting new members than helping people."

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JnKhD RT @anontana: I beg everyone to please join #Anonymous IRC; we need over 9000 people right now! http://bit.ly/ica4Ji http://pastebin.com/Qsrci3wQ 9 minutes ago via web