The hacktivist group Anonymous is at it again. This time, it has humiliated an Internet security firm that threatened to out the group’s hierarchy.
If you remember, Anonymous has been in the news, first, because in support of WikiLeaks, it undertook cyberattacks that brought down the websites of Visa and Mastercard. Second, because it brought down the sites of some government entities in Egypt and helped the anti-government protesters with technical help. Third, because as NPR’s Martin Kaste reported, the FBI is hot on the group’s heels.
Today, the website ArsTechnica ran a piece that details how Anonymous methodically went after HBGary Federal’s digital infrastructure. Earlier this month, HBGary Federal’s CEO Aaron Barr said the company, which specializes in analyzing vulnerabilities in computer security for companies and even some government agencies, had undertaken an investigation of Anonymous and had used social media to unmask the group’s most important people.
Barr said an HBGary representative was set to give a presentation at a security conference in San Francisco, but as soon as Anonymous got wind of their plans, it hacked into HBGary’s servers, rifled through their e-mails and published them to the web. The group defaced HBGary’s website and published the user registration database of another site owned by Greg Hoglund, owner of HBGary.
Amazingly, reports ArsTechnica, Anonymous managed all this by exploiting, easy and everyday security flaws. …
If even professional security firms are this vulnerable, I hate to think what will happen when the cyber war really starts.
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The hacktivist group Anonymous is at it again. This time, it has humiliated an Internet security firm that threatened to out the group’s hierarchy.
If you remember, Anonymous has been in the news, first, because in support of WikiLeaks, it undertook cyberattacks that brought down the websites of Visa and Mastercard. Second, because it brought down the sites of some government entities in Egypt and helped the anti-government protesters with technical help. Third, because as NPR’s Martin Kaste reported, the FBI is hot on the group’s heels.
Today, the website ArsTechnica ran a piece that details how Anonymous methodically went after HBGary Federal’s digital infrastructure. Earlier this month, HBGary Federal’s CEO Aaron Barr said the company, which specializes in analyzing vulnerabilities in computer security for companies and even some government agencies, had undertaken an investigation of Anonymous and had used social media to unmask the group’s most important people.
Barr said an HBGary representative was set to give a presentation at a security conference in San Francisco, but as soon as Anonymous got wind of their plans, it hacked into HBGary’s servers, rifled through their e-mails and published them to the web. The group defaced HBGary’s website and published the user registration database of another site owned by Greg Hoglund, owner of HBGary.
Amazingly, reports ArsTechnica, Anonymous managed all this by exploiting, easy and everyday security flaws. …
If even professional security firms are this vulnerable, I hate to think what will happen when the cyber war really starts.