Anonymous Member Says Palantir Not Off The Hook

Meanwhile, Congressional lawmakers call for probe of HBGary, Berico, Palantir, and law firm Hunton & Williams

Fallout from the Anonymous groups cyberattack on security firm HBGary Federal just keeps on coming: Anonymous is cranking up the pressure on another security vendor whose name came up in the leaked emails from HBGary Federal -- Palantir Technologies.
Meanwhile,
the case has grabbed the attention of Capitol Hill
. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and a dozen other members of Congress have called for a Congressional investigation into alleged activities of law firm Hunton & Williams and HBGary, Berico, and Palantir, citing the contents of leaked emails from HBGary Federal that went public after the security firm was attacked by Anonymous. Johnson and his colleagues say the emails indicate a conspiracy to attack critics of the Chamber of Commerce using subversive techniques and possible illegal actions against citizens engaged in free speech, according to a report in
The Washington Post
.
It all started last month
when Anonymous broke into HBGary Federals servers
, as well as that of CEO Aaron Barrs Twitter account, in apparent retaliation for Barrs investigative research into the group and its leaders. Barr had told
The Financial Times
that he was able to get the names of some of the leaders of Anonymous, as well as some information on their locations -- in California, the U.K., Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, and Australia, he said. That didnt go over well with Anonymous, which then hacked and dumped the contents of the firms email messages and other sensitive information online, and commandeered Barrs Twitter account and posted his Social Security number and address.
The HBGary Federal emails posted online by Anonymous indicated plans to attack WikiLeaks and writer Glenn Greenwald, a WikiLeaks supporter, using some apparently questionable methods. The emails suggested that the project was for a proposal that was aimed at Bank of America, via its law firm, Hunton & Williams. Bank of America has denied any knowledge of the proposal.
In the wake of the HBGary email spool being exposed, Palantir, which had not responded to press inquiries as of this posting, severed all ties to HBGary, punctuated by a public statement issued by its co-founder and CEO Alex Karp. Palantir Technologies provides a software analytic platform for the analysis of data. We do not provide -- nor do we have any plans to develop -- offensive cyber capabilities. Palantir Technologies does not build software that is designed to allow private sector entities to obtain non-public information, engage in so-called cyber attacks or take other offensive measures, Karp said.
But that statement didnt satisfy Anonymous. Barrett Brown, a member of Anonymous who has written for Vanity Fair, Skeptic, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and The Onion, is urging people to keep the pressure on Palantir, which he says must change its ways. Brown published a series of emails between Palantir and others
on his blog post for the Daily Kos
that he says shows Palantirs involvement in the now infamous WikiLeaks Threat proposal presentation.
I want help to get this information out on Palantir ... and for that congressional hearing, Brown says.
There are no plans for Anonymous to DDoS or hack Palantir, he says. But he didnt rule out the possibility, either, given the loose affiliation and scope of the Anonymous community. No one controls Anononymous ... people can influence it. Anonymous is going to do what Anonymous is going to do ... we are on the warpath, Brown says.
Brown says he prefers shock and awe techniques like cold-calling a CEO and recording the conversation. Thats more effective than DDoSing, says Brown, who recorded a phone conversation with HBGary Federals former CEO, Aaron Barr. [But] Im a big fan of hacking .. [the hackers] did a damn good job on HBGary.
HBGary had not responded to press inquiries as of this posting.
And in case you were wondering,
Bank of Americas website outage today
was not at the hand of Anonymous, Brown says, although hes not sure what caused it exactly: We have admirers we dont have control of that are part of this movement, he notes. There were people talking about DDoSing them [Bank of America], but I dont know if it they were Anons or not.
Security researchers, meanwhile, say Anonymous has changed the game. The bar has been raised with the targeted attack and breach of HBGary, says Marc Maiffret, founder and CTO at eEye Digital Security, who did some black-hat hacking as a teenager. They may start to do more of that versus just DDoSing.
Maiffret says Anonymous has a large, global identity that includes political activists and hackers. Rather than different people, they are gravitating to a central identity, he says.
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Anonymous Member Says Palantir Not Off The Hook