The group Anonymous, renowned for hacking government organisations, has hacked the Twitter account of the chief executive of HBGary, Aaron Barr.
Recent attacks and statements by Anonymous have revealed it was seeking revenge on Aaron Barr, as a result of revealing key members of the secret elite online community. The group posted numerous tweets allegedly including Barr’s social security number and address, and his mobile phone number.
The attack is claimed to have been conducted by five members, who believed Barr was planning to reveal his information to the FBI. Anonymous has claimed the information provided was “woefully inaccurate”.
In January, five people were arrested in the UK, accused for their participation in attacks against sites such as PayPal. The attack is allegedly a consequence of seeking revenge on PayPal for its withdrawal of payment facilities for WikiLeaks.
On Friday, Barr informed the Financial Times of crucial information about Anonymous and its members, revealing nicknames and locations of top members, one in New York and the other in California, with several other senior members in Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and Australia. He revealed he had worked out their identities through examining online sources such as email, Facebook and internet relay chat (IRC).
Anonymous spoke to Barr via today’s press release, “Unlike you, Aaron, we did our research, we know who you are, and now, so will everyone else. Although you have managed to ruin your credibility in an attempt to further it, you did provide us with entertainment, albeit very briefly.”
Anonymous claims Barr was attempting to highlight “a systematic flaw to the FBI’s investigative woodwork. The risk of institutionalising a flawed procedure exponentiates a problem, and it does so at the taxpayers’ expense in every sense. Had the FBI indeed bought this information from HBGary Federal, it would have been paid for by taxpayers’ money, and many innocent people would have been marked as leaders in actions they may not even have been associated with.”
Anonymous also stated, “We understand that our participants have been concerned about recent FBI raids and companies such as HBGary Federal lurking and logging our chats, so we’ve given all of Anonymous a message: we will fight back.”
The group attempts to define Anonymous by stating, “Anonymous does not have leaders. We are not a group, we are not an organisation. We are just an idea.”
