Did HBGary’s Aaron Barr have the legal and ethical right to pursue Anonymous? Did
Anonymous act ethically and legally toward HBGary?
Solution
HBGary’s Aaron Barr have the legal and ethical right to pursue Anonymous and Anonymous did
not
act ethically and legally toward HBGary::-
A little over a year ago, small security firm HBGary Federal made the news for all the wrong
reasons:
it had been hacked, its CEO had been made a laughing stock, and its private e-mails were
splashed across
the Internet. The perpetrators, a group of hackers sympathetic to the Anonymous group, trashed
HBGary Federal\'s
servers and name with impunity, confident that tor and private VPNs would keep their identities
secret
For months, they seemed invincible; most went on to form LulzSec during the summer of 2011,
which infiltrated a
huge number of corporations and police servers, releasing e-mails, taking credit card numbers,
and taunting their
pursuers. But the pursuers kept coming, and this week brought down their quarry with a string
of indictments and
the possibility of lengthy jail terms. With the arrests, the HBGary Federal hack saga is largely
concluded
The HBGary Federal attack
HBGary sells security software for detecting, categorizing, and analyzing malware. Its HBGary
Federal subsidiary
was created to cater to the security and classification needs of federal agencies, and hoped to sell
HBGary\'s
software to the Department of Defense and the numerous three-letter agencies. Federal was
struggling, however,
failing to bring in the lucrative government contracts that HBGary had hoped for
After years of minor trolling and harassment of Scientologists, the Anonymous group had
performed a series of
high-profile denial-of-service attacks on PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa, after the credit card
companies and
payment processor halted all donations in support of WikiLeaks.
Though presenting itself as a faceless collective, Anonymous undoubtedly had ring-leaders,
people within the
group setting the agenda and co-ordinating the attacks. Law enforcement agencies around the
world wanted to
know who was behind the pro-WikiLeaks attacks—and Aaron Barr thought he knew
It was the perfect opportunity to get HBGary Federal\'s name some high profile press and
reinvigorate the business,
and on February 5th, 2011, Barr announced his plans to unmask Anonymous\' main players
The reaction from Anonymous was immediate and brutal. HBGary\'s servers were hacked, and
its e-mail system pillaged.
A server belonging to its CEO, Greg Hoglund, was also compromised and wiped
The hacks revealed basic errors in the configuration and administration of HBGary\'s
systems—embarrassing enough for
a company working in the security sphere. Worse still was the leaking of the e-mails, which laid
bare the company\'s
efforts to solicit government contracts to discredit WikiLeaks and develop undetectable rootkits
for the government..
Did HBGary’s Aaron Barr have the legal and ethical right to pursue A.pdf
1. Did HBGary’s Aaron Barr have the legal and ethical right to pursue Anonymous? Did
Anonymous act ethically and legally toward HBGary?
Solution
HBGary’s Aaron Barr have the legal and ethical right to pursue Anonymous and Anonymous did
not
act ethically and legally toward HBGary::-
A little over a year ago, small security firm HBGary Federal made the news for all the wrong
reasons:
it had been hacked, its CEO had been made a laughing stock, and its private e-mails were
splashed across
the Internet. The perpetrators, a group of hackers sympathetic to the Anonymous group, trashed
HBGary Federal's
servers and name with impunity, confident that tor and private VPNs would keep their identities
secret
For months, they seemed invincible; most went on to form LulzSec during the summer of 2011,
which infiltrated a
huge number of corporations and police servers, releasing e-mails, taking credit card numbers,
and taunting their
pursuers. But the pursuers kept coming, and this week brought down their quarry with a string
of indictments and
the possibility of lengthy jail terms. With the arrests, the HBGary Federal hack saga is largely
concluded
The HBGary Federal attack
HBGary sells security software for detecting, categorizing, and analyzing malware. Its HBGary
Federal subsidiary
was created to cater to the security and classification needs of federal agencies, and hoped to sell
HBGary's
software to the Department of Defense and the numerous three-letter agencies. Federal was
struggling, however,
failing to bring in the lucrative government contracts that HBGary had hoped for
After years of minor trolling and harassment of Scientologists, the Anonymous group had
performed a series of
high-profile denial-of-service attacks on PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa, after the credit card
2. companies and
payment processor halted all donations in support of WikiLeaks.
Though presenting itself as a faceless collective, Anonymous undoubtedly had ring-leaders,
people within the
group setting the agenda and co-ordinating the attacks. Law enforcement agencies around the
world wanted to
know who was behind the pro-WikiLeaks attacks—and Aaron Barr thought he knew
It was the perfect opportunity to get HBGary Federal's name some high profile press and
reinvigorate the business,
and on February 5th, 2011, Barr announced his plans to unmask Anonymous' main players
The reaction from Anonymous was immediate and brutal. HBGary's servers were hacked, and
its e-mail system pillaged.
A server belonging to its CEO, Greg Hoglund, was also compromised and wiped
The hacks revealed basic errors in the configuration and administration of HBGary's
systems—embarrassing enough for
a company working in the security sphere. Worse still was the leaking of the e-mails, which laid
bare the company's
efforts to solicit government contracts to discredit WikiLeaks and develop undetectable rootkits
for the government.
