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They don't forgive, they don't forget. Expect them.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Beefy Phil, Feb 22, 2011.

  1. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    I don't believe that the government hired them to do this.

    I believe the powerpoint presentation thing went down just as you mentioned.

    I'm not buying into the whole journalist angle that the OTHER "journalists" are spreading around.

    The rootkit sales to corporations and other hacking exploits are quite legitimate, though. They've seemed to explain those away by saying "we're a government contractor" like it's a get-out-of-jail-free card. Not that the government hired them to do the acts, mind you.
     
  2. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    Right. My bad. He's the CEO of Federal, who they say "fell on his sword", but I really doubt it's anything as altruistic as the press release says it is.

    My tinfoil hat lends me to think that either he recognizes the shit's about to REALLY hit the fan so he's bailing in an attempt to remove himself from the issues (hearings?) while appearing stoic, or he was kicked out as a scapegoat in the hopes that the masses will get their pound of flesh and all will be forgotten and the government bilking can continue on as usual.

    I tend to believe that things will be very shitty for these guys for a while, and that their magical government contracts will dry up as yet another hackish company will step up and take over. This is bad publicity, and Washington hates nothing more.

    Regardless, for all the childishness and bullshit that is Anonymous, I think shedding light on this is about the only good thing they've done.
     
  3. DrFrylock

    DrFrylock
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    The White

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    Agreed. I doubt there is any altruism here at all.

    Probably a little of both. Whatever happens, him staying isn't a good deal for anybody - him included.

    Let's get something straight here: we are not talking about major companies here. HBGary, the parent company: 27 employees. HBGary Federal: 3. Now two, I guess. I think another one was the programmer who kept telling Barr he didn't have enough data to make any inferences about Anonymous' membership and that he needed to calm the fuck down.

    From what I've read, HBGary Federal was spun off/stood up by HBGary to try to GET contracts as a new line of business, but as a separate company so if the government claimed any rights to stuff that was done under contract, it would not extend to separate work being done by HBGary (like making rootkits for private corporations or whatever). Actually splitting off that business is probably a sound business strategy. If, you know, your spinoff business isn't run by an uncontrollable guy with delusions of hacker grandeur.

    But I am starting to doubt whether 3-man HBGary Federal ever actually got a government contract to do anything, let alone start smear campaigns and such. In fact, from what I have read it sounds like the whole "I'm gonna hack Anonymous!" was an effort initiated by Barr to have a story to shop around specifically to drum up business from the government.

    I doubt there were any government contracts to begin with, but whether contracts from private companies to HBGary (the parent company) dry up is yet to be seen. I certainly wouldn't expect either company to get any new government contracts anytime soon, at least until they change their name or spin off a new company to go after government business.

    Agreed. Sometimes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I guess.
     
  4. DrFrylock

    DrFrylock
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    The White

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    Also since we're in such rare and complete agreement, shouldn't we hug or something?
     
  5. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    But I thought the whole reason these guys were hacked by Anonymous in the first place was that they had a government contract to find out who they were?

    That was the whole reason that anonymous released the emails and info in the first place, wasn't it? So that HB would potentially not get paid by the government for information they'd already received for free?

    Or was this a deal of them trying to impress the government by going to them, unsolicited, with info on Anonymous, to prove their worth and attempt to get contracts?

    And I see that they just did it to try and get contracts. Wow.

    This shed some light on it for me: <a class="postlink" href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/the-ridiculous-plan-to-attack-wikileaks.ars" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... ileaks.ars</a>


    I hadn't seen that before, but it's worth a read. Even if it's just a little bit true, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

     
  6. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    After reading that piece, I'm betting he was kicked out, and the legal investigations will follow shortly.

    Fag.
     
  7. DrFrylock

    DrFrylock
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    The White

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    Yep.

    That's a good article and anybody who is still possessed of the notion that some government conspiracy was occurring here should definitely read it. The guy got hired by HBGary to drum up Federal and other business, hadn't come through in more than a year (but spent plenty of money) and at the end was increasingly desperate and was pitching anything and everything to anybody in the hopes that somebody would hire him.

    I note with great bemusement two things:

    1. They managed to invoice $60,000 for 60 "social media trainings" at some point. My best guess: they got a sip on the holy grail of the technical world: the short course.

    How this works is that you hang out a shingle as an expert in (something). You have to have impressive-sounding credentials for this to work. Then you develop a 3-5 day "course" on the area of your expertise, where you tell people about that thing. You shop this around to corporations, saying that you're charging $1000 a head for the weeklong course, plus expenses. Minimum 20 heads, of course. Or some variant of that. I know a guy who has (effectively) exactly the same resume I do and charges $1700 a head, minimum 5 heads, plus expenses, for a 3-day course. Sadly, I have no idea how many people bite. I hope it's zero. But I'm sure it's nonzero, and, then again, how many have to? If he sells this package with the minimum number of heads (unlikely - most places will pay for at least 10) 10 times a year, he's pulling down $85K and working 30 days, or 50 if you count travel.

    I have seriously considered doing this, if not as a job, as a side thing. I would not mind making 6 figures working 12 weeks a year--or less.

    2. Barr's "social network expertise" probably seems magical to people who never use the Internet, but honestly it doesn't seem he has any particular tricks up his sleeve that would be unfamiliar to the regular denizens of TiB. He'd pick a target, and then find out all about them - name, phone number, address, relationships, etc. Think about that for a minute: his business model was basically "I will Wahoo the person of your choice for $100K."

    Read that again: his business model here was Wahooing people for money.

    What's sad is I think if he had set the price right, been less crazy about it, and had a few tricks beyond Googling and using Zabasearch, he probably would have gotten a few takers, at least for "opposition research."

    Hey Chater, I have an idea for a new startup...let's talk....
     
  8. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    Crown Royal is off in his shed... crying.
     
  9. Nettdata

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    Mr. Toast

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    Just ran across this other article that is quite interesting.

    It's about the parent, non-Federal company, HBGary.

    <a class="postlink" href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/black-ops-how-hbgary-wrote-backdoors-and-rootkits-for-the-government.ars/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... nment.ars/</a>

    It goes on to describe some of the rootkits that it's developed for a fee, and eventually points the article into the "Big Brother is developing tools to watch and control you" area.

    Still, it's pretty interesting reading material that we'd have had a hard time seeing without the help of Anonymous.

    I just want to know where the rootkit source code is.
     
  10. Rush-O-Matic

    Rush-O-Matic
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    Emotionally Jaded

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    ?
     

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  11. Muses

    Muses
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    After more research it does appear that HBGary Federal and co. never actually got a government contract, making this less of a headline-worthy scandal and more just another instance of, to use Stephen Colbert's analogy, an idiot poking the Anonymous beehive and getting stung. I was wrong, then - this isn't really anything that important or a big deal after all - but it's still a pretty funny story at least. Not to mention Mr. Barr sounds like an incompetent, conniving douche who got exactly what he deserved.

    I'm surprised Colbert covered this incident so poorly, what with the erroneous government conspiracy angle and all - I know, he's not a "real" news reporter, but still he usually gets his facts right (when he's not getting them wrong on purpose of course).