HBGary was working with Bank of America on a plan to take down WikiLeaks

[Renew Deal]

<snip>
Anonymous also published somewhere between 44,000 and 60,000 emails between HBGary and its corporate/government customers. And what was inside those emails was an eye-opener.

It seems HBGary was working with Bank of America on a plan to take down WikiLeaks –- and, strangely, CNN and Salon commentator Glenn Greenwald, whom it deemed instrumental to WikiLeaks' continued existence, along with a handful of other prominent journalists.

HBGary was one of five firms allegedly involved in the discussion, along with law firm Hunton & Williams, data-gathering firms Palantir and Berico, and consultants Booz Allen Hamilton. Business Insider published the slides this group prepared for BofA. It's pretty chilling. To quote slide 5:

Glenn was critical in the Amazon to OVH transition…It is this level of support that needs to be disrupted. These are established professionals that have a liberal bent, but ultimately if pushed most of them choose professional preservation over cause, such is the mentality of most business professionals. Without the support of people like Glenn wikileaks would fold.

What do you suppose they meant by "pushed"? As in, over a cliff?

That presentation suggests strategies such as sowing dissension within the WikiLeaks org, disinformation (submitting false documents to WikiLeaks in order to discredit it), cyber attacks against WikiLeaks' service providers, a media smear campaign, and "using social media to profile and identify risky behavior of employees."

Does that last one sound like blackmail to you?
<snip>

http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/2011-the-year-hacking-goes-mainstream-255

[rurallib]

1. BofA sure is scared of something getting out.

[BeFree]

2. HBGary?

It was even on DU a few times... read it here, right?

Wikileaks rules: HBGary's drool.

[DirkGently]

3. Another gem was a proposal to feed critical organizations false info; then "expose" the critics.

This looks like the tip of a very ugly iceberg. Anonymous has done a tremendous public service here.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. It's the same trick played on Dan Rather by Karl Rove in regard to

Smirky being AWOL.

[DirkGently]

5. ... certainly lends a boatload of credence to those who have always thought that, doesn't it?

[gratuitous]

6. Why wouldn't they work together?

After all, HBGary came highly recommended . . . by the Department of Justice.

[mdmc]

7. ..