http://blogs.forbes.com/parmyolson/2011/03/23/congressman-probing-hbgary-scandal-fears-domestic-surveillance/ By Parmy Olson Forbes.com March 23 2011 When a small team of hackers launched a 24-hour assault on software security firm HBGary Federal last month, they did so to take revenge on its CEO, who had sought to penetrate the global collective they aligned themselves with known as Anonymous. They did that and more. Now a Congressional subcommittee has asked to see all HBGary Federal’s contracts with the U.S. military and the National Security Agency (NSA), along with those agencies’ contracts with two other private security firms, Berico Technologies and Palantir Technologies. The hacked HBGary Federal emails that were posted online showed the three firms had proposed a plan to the Chamber of Commerce’s legal representative Hunton & Williams to infiltrate and discredit the Chamber’s opponents with fake documents, personas, and potentially even malicious software. There were also proposals to track and intimidate supporters of WikiLeaks. The man behind the investigation, Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia’s 4th House District, penned a letter signed by 19 other members of Congress calling for a subcommittee investigation on March 1. He believes the Chamber, Hunton & Williams, and the three security firms were in discussion regarding a “potentially illegal” scheme, according to a memo from his office. Given the classified and convoluted nature of the alleged activities (not to mention lobbyists who will undoubtedly take issue with it), it’s possible Johnson’s Congressional probe will lead him and others down a long and winding rabbit hole. That’s also because of the wider implications he sees behind the HBGary revelations: domestic surveillance on Americans. [...] ___________________________________________________________ Tegatai Managed Colocation: Four Provider Blended Tier-1 Bandwidth, Fortinet Universal Threat Management, Natural Disaster Avoidance, Always-On Power Delivery Network, Cisco Switches, SAS 70 Type II Datacenter. Find peace of mind, Defend your Critical Infrastructure. http://www.tegataiphoenix.com/Received on Thu Mar 24 2011 - 23:21:31 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Thu Mar 24 2011 - 23:25:09 PDT