Anonymous Hackers Pwn Security Expert

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**WarOne**

Researcher says he can expose Anonymous member identities, in turn, gets his information hacked by group.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9208562/Security_researcher_feels_the_wrath_of_Anonymous

Network World - Wikileaks defenders Anonymous are firing both barrels at a security researcher who promised to name people in the group.

Aaron Barr vowed he’d expose organizers of the online activist group Anonymous next week, but in response Anonymous hacked his Twitter account, broke into his company network and posted more than 44,000 of the company’s e-mails. They also posted his home address, phone number and Social Security number on his Twitter page.

Barr, the CEO of HBGary Federal, said in an interview with the Financial Times over the weekend that he’d expose the leaders of the hacktivist group Anonymous next week at a conference in San Francisco, where he is scheduled to speak at the Security B-Sides event.

Since that story ran, Anonymous has broken into HBGary Federal’s network where it says it found Barr’s research on the group, and, in a press release, declared it to be “woefully inaccurate.”

“Aaron Barr missed a great deal of information that has been available online, and in fact failed to identify some of those whose identities were never intended to be hidden,” the group says in the release.

Anonymous has also posted an e-mail exchange between the hacked e-mail account of Greg Hoglund (the founder of HBGary Federal’s parent company, HBGary) and an HBGary Federal employee in which Anonymous convinces the employee to open up a firewall port through which the hackers gained access to the company network.

In addition to exposing personal details about Barr on his Twitter page, it doctored his photo with a Special K logo on his forehead and a piece of white tape over his mouth.

A post said, “Okay Anons, we're giving Aaron back his account in T-Minus 60 minutes. If he doesn't admit defeat in his first Tweet, we're taking it back.”

An hour later the most recent post read: “Today Anonymous has shown its fury. We will destroy those who we feel need to be destroyed. Everyone learned their lesson? Back to normal.” His photo had been distorted to a caricature with the words “Forever Barrlone” written on it.

A later Tweet that subsequently disappeared read, “Account control is now switching to the real Aaron Barr; Mr. Barr, you should know that we're still watching. Place nice or we won't.”

After 45 minutes or so Barr hadn’t Tweeted. Reached by phone, he referred questions about his battle with Anonymous to a spokesperson for HBGary Federal because he was busy dealing with problems spawned by Anonymous. “Right now I’m trying to make sure I don’t lose my money or anything else,” Barr said.

Later a post on his Twitter page read, “ok. So Anon has done a number on me. Probably going to take a bit to piece things together, probably more to come.”

Anonymous, a loose confederation of international hackers, gained notoriety last year when it defended Wikileaks founder Julian Assange who was under siege for posting thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables online. Anonymous’ tactics were to launch denial of service attacks against sites that were undermining Wikileaks’ sites.

Read more about wide area network in Network World's Wide Area Network section.

**Lord PoPo**

I like these guys

**DA's Forever**

Don't get in their way apparently

**Samus_aran115**

Haha. Hilarious. Also, nice use of 'pwn'

**Chowderhead**

This is why this don't mess with the internet. They'll LOIC you into oblivion.

**SagesStone**

Doesn't this happen every time someone threatens Anonymous?

**rubiksnoob**

Heh, "forever barrlone."

**halonachos**

Something tells me this won't end well, the hackers probably use at least seven proxies so it's tough enough to just find one, then they hacked his twitter account and used it to get his email. They then used the email to get the employee to take down the firewall which is like taking the walls out of your house and wondering why the wind is coming through.

They didn't break through the firewall, they just went around it like the Germans going around the Maginot Line. If I remember history, the Germans lose in the end.

**Chowderhead**

And I mean, really? If he outs every single member of Anon, that's like, a few hundred thousand people, right?

**SagesStone**

Not everyone in it would be the hackers though, I think those are the ones he was targeting not the group as a whole.

**Chowderhead**

n0t_u wrote:Not everyone in it would be the hackers though, I think those are the ones he was targeting not the group as a whole.

But how can one track down hundreds of simultaneous hacks at one time?

**halonachos**

chowderhead13 wrote:And I mean, really? If he outs every single member of Anon, that's like, a few hundred thousand people, right?

It depends on whether or not the government would allow them to put a capture on 4chan, it would capture the proxies they were doing, after that its just a matter of sorting through the proxies. These aren't newfags they're dealing with though, newfags will hack your facebook and send you a text message. With which you get their SSN and shut them up.

**malfred**

"Place nice"? Really?

This is the face of the revolution? I'm crying here.

**SagesStone**

Got to love that education system.

**Cannerus_The_Unbearable**

Apparently grammar and word usage are unrelated to |_337 5|<][|_|_5.

**Happygrunt**

Ah, his first mistake was thinking that this was the work of the 4chan "NewF**s". Anon, true Anon, is a force of nature not to be messed with. Like Volcanoes.

**Chowderhead**

Happygrunt wrote:Ah, his first mistake was thinking that this was the work of the 4chan "NewF**s". Anon, true Anon, is a force of nature not to be messed with. Like Volcanoes.

Or Very angry cats.

Seriously, you would think that people would stop poking the internet hate machine, bit no, we need to poke the bear with even pointier sticks!

(Note: I do not endorse Anon, But I do not deny it's effectiveness.)

**Kilkrazy**

chowderhead13 wrote:
n0t_u wrote:Not everyone in it would be the hackers though, I think those are the ones he was targeting not the group as a whole.

But how can one track down hundreds of simultaneous hacks at one time?

Presumably with computers. They are good at that kind of thing.

**dogma**

Happygrunt wrote:Ah, his first mistake was thinking that this was the work of the 4chan "NewF**s". Anon, true Anon, is a force of nature not to be messed with. Like Volcanoes.

Thing is, governments, particularly the United States government, have large amount weaponry and money; plus legitimate access to the records that Anon would use to defame others.

All three of these things trump computer manipulation skills.

**SilverMK2**

Whilst a good indication of just how vulnerable even, presumably, security conscious people are and how a single weak link in a chain can lead to an individual or group getting access to "secure" information, I am not really sure how this is helping anyone.

**sebster**

SilverMK2 wrote:Whilst a good indication of just how vulnerable even, presumably, security conscious people are and how a single weak link in a chain can lead to an individual or group getting access to "secure" information, I am not really sure how this is helping anyone.

It's dick measuring. This guy said he was leet enough to expose some of the anonymous people, so they set about embarressing him. It's funny, but it's dick measuring.

**SilverMK2**

I was tempted to add something into my post about e-willies, but thought it was rather self evident

**dogma**

Theoretically it shouldn't be impossible to expose any of these people. Its simply a matter exerting time and effort. Thus far Anon hasn't done anything to raise enough ire to actually create a significant desire to do just that; perhaps because they aren't stupid.

Still, I hate very few things, and what ranks high on that short list is net posturing. I feel perhaps too much like Frazzled in saying this, but I would totally laugh for a significant time if some government or another were to remind Anon of the good-old fashioned power created by political legitimacy and currency.

**SilverMK2**

It would be quite entertaining to see the look on their faces as their computers are virused to the point of total hardware failure right in front of their eyes just as the front door of their parents house is knocked down by armed police

**Oldgrue**

halonachos wrote:Something tells me this won't end well, the hackers probably use at least seven proxies ...

I see what you did there.

chowderhead13 wrote:
But how can one track down hundreds of simultaneous hacks at one time?

Can be done. Doesn't require too much work, just paranoia and preparation.

dogma wrote: ...legitimate access to the records that Anon would use to defame others.

Is it defamation to point out genuine hubris?

dogma wrote: remind Anon of the good-old fashioned power created by political legitimacy and currency.

Wait, isn't Hosni Mubarak having a bit of an exciting time applying those tools? Isn't political legitimacy directly derived from popular support?

@silver - this overestimates the technical ability and resources at the disposal of our government.

I'm fairly convinced that Anon is like the First Amendment : an abject pain in the tookhes sometimes, but we're still better off for it being here.

**SilverMK2**

Oldgrue wrote:@silver - this overestimates the technical ability and resources at the disposal of our government.

Who said anything about your government?

I'm just waiting until they mess with the Chinese...

And while I agree that they can do some good, the way they go about it is probably not the best and may well cause more harm than good.

**dogma**

Oldgrue wrote:
Is it defamation to point out genuine hubris?

Do you not have things you have done that would be damaging when expressed in public?

We all do terrible things from time to time (or at least I've done them) that aren't to be expressed in public because of our collective desire for superiority and "decency".

Oldgrue wrote:
Wait, isn't Hosni Mubarak having a bit of an exciting time applying those tools? Isn't political legitimacy directly derived from popular support?

Sometimes. other times its derived from a gun.

If Mubarak used more of the latter over the last 20 years the people currently standing in the street would be calmly resting under ground.

**Kilkrazy**

Five suspected Anonymouses were arrested by Scotland Yard a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/27/anon_hacking_suspects_uk_arrest/

This was in connection with DDOS attacks.

I expect they are less likely to action just for someone's address being released.

**Oldgrue**

Yeah, I've done some stuff I'd rather not have exposed to people. It doesn't make them any less true.
When my career is based on the concept of maintaining confidentiality, integrity and availability of information (As it is) this is an occupational hazard. The man picked a fight he could hardly hope to win.

Arguably, Yes, Mubarak could. Stalinistic purges have been known to work. I presume your support for this method is for the sake of debate however.

**dogma**

Oldgrue wrote:Yeah, I've done some stuff I'd rather not have exposed to people. It doesn't make them any less true.
When my career is based on the concept of maintaining confidentiality, integrity and availability of information (As it is) this is an occupational hazard. The man picked a fight he could hardly hope to win.

But then the question becomes this: If we've all done things we don't want people to know about, why are we all so judgmental when these things are exposed?

So maybe you killed a guy, why should I care if it wasn't someone I was attached to? After all, lots of people kill people, and most of us at least contribute to the killing of others.

Oldgrue wrote:
Arguably, Yes, Mubarak could. Stalinistic purges have been known to work. I presume your support for this method is for the sake of debate however.

I'm not supporting anything, I'm merely saying it has worked in the past.

Either way, I'm only really opposed to people that want to purge me, or people I'm especially attached to.