Firm Hacked by ‘Anonymous’ Plotted Against WikiLeaks on Bank’s Behalf (Glenn Greenwald Targeted)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Tech Herald / Raw Story

Firm hacked by ‘Anonymous’ plotted against WikiLeaks on bank’s behalf: report

By Eric W. Dolan
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 -- 1:33 pm

Three data intelligence firms concocted a plan to attack WikiLeaks on behalf of Bank of America, according to a published report.

The three firms, Palantir Technologies, HBGary Federal and Berico Technologies, planned to "disrupt" Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald's support of WikiLeaks, create a disinformation campaign to discredit the secrets outlet, sow discord among WikiLeaks volunteers, and use cyber attacks to target the website's infrastructure.

The proposed assault on WikiLeaks, The Tech Herald reported, was revealed after the "non-group" of hacktivists known as "Anonymous" gained access to more than 44,000 emails from HBGary Federal's COO, Aaron Barr, after he said he had identified "core leaders" of the group. Barr also said he had information that could potentially lead to their arrest. The emails were released to the public in a 4.71 gigabyte Torrent file.

- snip -

The emails do not show what the fate of the proposal was, aside from an message that vaguely expressed hope HBGary was going to "close the BOA deal." Nor is there any information at the time of this story's publication to suggest that Bank of America was directly involved in developing the plot against WikiLeaks.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/data-intelligence-firms-proposed-attack-wikileaks

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A graphic with a look at the plan of attack here (h/t seafan):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=587243&mesg_id=587254

http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201106/6798/Data-intelligence-firms-proposed-a-systematic-attack-against-WikiLeaks

- snip -

One of those listed as a volunteer, Salon.com columnist, Glenn Greenwald, was singled out by the proposal. Greenwald, previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York, has been a vocal supporter of Bradley Manning, who is alleged to have given diplomatic cables and other government information to WikiLeaks. He has yet to be charged in the matter.

Greenwald became a household name in December when he reported on the “inhumane conditions” of Bradley Manning’s confinement at the Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia. Since that report, Greenwald has reported on WikiLeaks and Manning several times.

“Glenn was critical in the Amazon to OVH transition,” the proposal says, referencing the hosting switch WikiLeaks was forced to make after political pressure caused Amazon to drop their domain.

MORE

Glenn Greenwald Twitter Response:

@emptywheel Yeah - clearly I place professional preservation before cause: that's why I'm a WL defender - & media critic. So good for career

about 2 hours ago via web in reply to emptywheel

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Kick. nt

[leftstreet]

2. K&R

[Hissyspit]

3. kick nt

[EFerrari]

4. That was a weird little read.

And pretty much confirms the tactics we thought would be used against WL.

[Raksha]

5. As a major JRR Tolkien fan, I resent the use of the word "Palantir"

in that first spy company's name.

Re "The three firms, Palantir Technologies, HBGary Federal and Berico Technologies, planned to "disrupt" Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald's support of WikiLeaks, create a disinformation campaign to discredit the secrets outlet, sow discord among WikiLeaks volunteers, and use cyber attacks to target the website's infrastructure."

In Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (for those who never knew or don't remember), the Palantiri are described as "the seeing-stones of Numenor." They were crystal balls in which one could see events happening at a distance. Since there were only seven of them in existence and they were the products of a lost technology, their use was a rare privilege of royalty and those on a high spiritual plane.

Unless of course one or more of them got stolen and abused by the dark side.

[Occulus]

12. I *would* feel that way, except that the name itself may well be appropriate to their activities.

Keep in mind, we're talking about computers here. The actual function of the Palantiri is literally doable with our own technology... and you don't even necessarily know someone's watching you. In fact, taken in that context, an actual Palantir would be considered downright antiquated, clunky, and virtually useless, and possibly dangerous (as Saruman sadly discovered) by our own standards.

[Raksha]

13. I'm aware of that, and had it very much in mind

but I kind of broke off the analogy in the middle and didn't finish it.

Re "Keep in mind, we're talking about computers here. The actual function of the Palantiri is literally doable with our own technology... and you don't even necessarily know someone's watching you."

What I was thinking of but didn't say earlier is that one distinctive feature of the Palantiri was that "they did not lie, and not even Sauron himself could make them do so." Anything seen in a Palantir was always the literal truth. However, Sauron or other denizens of the dark side could make the individual looking into them misinterpret the meaning the vision, by playing on their hopes and (usually) fears. In other words, what we'd probably call taking it out of context.

Unfortunately, we can't say the same thing about our own technology. Computers OTOH can easily be programmed to lie--see Diebold electronic touchscreen and vote-counting machines for "Exhibit A." And the data they produce or reveal can be taken out of context just as easily.

BTW, I think you meant Denethor and not Saruman in the last line of your post.

[The Doctor.]

6. F'ing Beautiful.

Anyone here play 'Netrunner'?

[frylock]

7. all of your base..

take it to the house, anonymous.

[WillyT]

8. HUGE K & R !!!

:kick:

[originalpckelly]

9. War. NT

[defendandprotect]

10. K/R

[Octafish]

11. Gosh. That sounds like a criminal action, targeting an individual for merely telling the truth.

Isn't there a word for that?

And when the whole of Corporate McPravda sides with the criminals, is there a word for that?

I don't give a damn whether there is or isn't: I stand with Greenwald.

[Raksha]

14. K & R

[Luminous Animal]

15. Marcy Wheeler at FireDogLake has two good posts up about this

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/02/09/the-disinformation-campaign-bank-of-america-considered/

One final note: according to Tech Herald, the law firm pitching these firms, Hunton and Williams, was itself recommended to BoA by DOJ. As the presentation makes clear, these are significant government contractors. (Remember, we’re getting these documents because Anonymous hacked HBGary Federal, which was offering what it had collected to DOJ.) To what extent is what we’re seeing just an extension of what our own government is trying to combat Wikileaks?

And here she elaborates AND defends Glenn...
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/02/09/security-firms-pitching-bank-of-america-proposed-targeting-glenn-greenwald/

Now aside from the predictable, but nevertheless rather shocking detail, that these security firms believed the best way to take WikiLeaks out was to push Glenn to stop supporting them, what the fuck are they thinking by claiming that Glenn weighs “professional preservation” against “cause”? Could they be more wrong, painting Glenn as a squeamish careerist whose loud support for WikiLeaks (which dates back far longer than these security firms seem to understand) is secondary to “professional preservation”? Do they know Glenn is a journalist? Do they know he left the stuffy world of law? Have they thought about why he might have done that? Are they familiar at all with who Glenn is? Do they really believe Glenn became a household name–to the extent that he did–just in December?

Both pieces are worth reading beyond the snips I posted.

[mdmc]

16. r

[Luminous Animal]

17. Kick.

[sabrina 1]

18. What's sad is that so many people, even here, fell for it.

Otoh, many, many more around the world, suspected something like this.

And the DOJ was involved? It's at the point where the U.S. Government has so little credibility that as soon as someone is targeted by them, as Wikileaks was, people assume the person being targeted must be one of the good guys.

I wonder when Americans will start demanding better government as other countries are doing right now? A Government that does not torture, or support torturers and dictators? There is simply no way to deny it, we have propped up the most evil people in the world for decades and caused untold misery and harm to tens of millions, maybe more, people.

[Hissyspit]

19. kick nt

[KoKo]

20. K&R.

[mdmc]

21. ..