out founded 2003 1 founder greg hoglund headquarters offices in sacramento california washington d.c. and bethesda maryland . 2 key people greg hoglund founder & ceo penny leavy president aaron barr former ceo of hbgary federal website hbgary inc. hbgary is a subsidiary company of mantech international focused on technology security . in the past two distinct but affiliated firms had carried the hbgary name hbgary federal which sold its products to the us federal government 3 and hbgary inc. 4 its other clients included information assurance companies computer emergency response teams and computer forensic investigators . 5 on february 29 2012 hbgary inc. announced it had been acquired by it services firm mantech international . 6 at the same time hbgary federal was reported to be closed . 6 contents 1 history 2 wikileaks bank of america hunton & williams and anonymous 2.1 fallout 2.2 astroturfing 2.3 malware development 3 products 4 acquisition by mantech international 5 references 6 external links history edit the company was founded by greg hoglund in 2003 . 1 in 2008 it joined the mcafee security innovation alliance . 5 the ceo made presentations at the black hat briefings the rsa conference and other computer security conferences . 7 8 hbgary also analyzed the ghostnet and operation aurora events . 3 7 as of 2010 it had offices in sacramento california washington d.c. and bethesda maryland . 2 hbgary federal had been set up with aaron barr as ceo instead of hoglund to provide services and tools to the us government which might require security clearance . 9 as hbgary federal could not meet revenue projections in early 2011 negotiations about the sale of hbgary federal were in progress with two interested companies . 10 hbgary was acquired by mantech international in february 2012 . 6 wikileaks bank of america hunton & williams and anonymous edit see also anonymous attack on hbgary federal step 1 gather all the data step 2 step 3 profit hbgary programmer to barr disparaging his plan with a reference to an episode of south park . 3 in 2010 aaron barr ceo of hbgary federal alleged that he could exploit social media to gather information about hackers . 3 in early 2011 barr claimed to have used his techniques to infiltrate anonymous 3 11 12 partly by using irc facebook twitter and by social engineering . 3 13 his e mails depict his intention to release information on the identities of anonymous members at the b sides conference and to sell it to possible clients 3 14 including the fbi . 15 in the e mails barr explained that he identified his list of suspected anonymous members by tracing connections through social media while his main programmer criticized this methodology . 3 16 in a communiqu anonymous denied association with the individuals that barr named . 17 18 on february 5 6 2011 anonymous compromised the hbgary website copied tens of thousands of documents from both hbgary federal and hbgary inc. posted tens of thousands of both companies emails online and usurped barr s twitter account in apparent revenge . 13 19 20 anonymous also claimed to have wiped barr s ipad remotely though this act remains unconfirmed . 3 14 21 22 the anonymous group responsible for these attacks would go on to become lulzsec . 23 fallout edit some of the documents taken by anonymous show hbgary federal was working on behalf of bank of america to respond to wikileaks planned release of the bank s internal documents . 4 24 potential proactive tactics against wikileaks include feeding the fuel between the feuding groups disinformation creating messages around actions to sabotage or discredit the opposing organization and submitting fake documents to wikileaks and then calling out the error . 25 emails indicate palantir technologies berico technologies and the law firm hunton & williams recommended to bank of america by the us justice department 15 all cooperated on the project . 25 other e mails appear to show the u.s. chamber of commerce contracted the firms to spy on and discredit unions and liberal groups . 26 27 the conflict with anonymous caused substantial public relations damage . as a result the involved organizations took steps to distance themselves from hbgary and hbgary federal february 7 2011 penny leavy president of hbgary inc. entered an anonymous irc channel to negotiate with the group . 3 she distanced her company from their partially owned subsidiary hbgary federal clarified the separation of the two and asked anonymous to refrain from attacks or leaks that would damage hbgary inc. and its customers . 28 february 10 2011 the chamber of commerce issued a statement denying they hired hbgary 29 calling the allegation a baseless smear and criticizing the center for american progress and its blog thinkprogress for the illusion of a connection between hbgary its ceo aaron barr and the chamber . 30 the chamber denied the truth of accusations 31 previously leveled by thinkprogress stating no money for any purpose was paid to any of those three private security firms by the chamber or by anyone on behalf of the chamber including hunton and williams . 30 february 11 2011 palantir s ceo apologized to glenn greenwald and severed any and all contacts with hbgary . 25 32 the ceo and coo of berico similarly stated that they had discontinued all ties with hbgary federal . 33 february 28 2011 aaron barr announced his resignation from hbgary federal to focus on taking care of my family and rebuilding my reputation . 34 march 1 2011 17 members of the united states congress called for a congressional investigation for possible violation of federal law by hunton & williams and team themis the partnership between palantir technologies berico technologies and hbgary federal . 35 march 16 2011 the house armed services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities asked the defense department and the national security agency to provide any contracts with hbgary federal palantir technologies and berico technologies for investigation . 36 astroturfing edit it has been reported that hbgary federal was contracted by the us government to develop astroturfing software which could create an army of multiple fake social media profiles . 37 38 later it was reported that while data security firm hbgary federal was among the persona management software contract s bidders listed on a government website the job was ultimately awarded to a firm that did not appear on the fedbizopps.gov page of interested vendors . this contract was awarded to a firm called ntrepid speaks wrote to raw story . 39 malware development edit hbgary had made numerous threats of cyber attacks against wikileaks . the dossier of recently exposed emails revealed hbgary inc. was working on the development of a new type of windows rootkit code named magenta 15 that would be undetectable and almost impossible to remove . 40 in october 2010 greg hoglund proposed to barr creating a large set of unlicensed windows 7 themes for video games and movies appropriate for middle east & asia sic which would contain back doors as part of an ongoing campaign to attack support for wikileaks . 41 products edit hbgary products name purpose fastdump fastdumppro ram snapshots aka memory images of windows computers 42 43 responder pro responder field edition analyze ram pagefiles vmware images etc. sort & display images network links etc ... 43 44 45 digital dna active defense detects malware 5 43 46 inoculator malware detection through remote procedure call 47 fget collect forensics data remotely 48 recon sandbox malware recorder 45 fingerprint analyzes common patterns amongst malware such as algorithms encodings compilers used names used etc. and possibly attempt to identify the creators of a piece of malware . 7 49 flypaper capture malware binary code 8 some products are integrated into other products i.e. recon and digital dna into responder . 45 acquisition by mantech international edit on 29 february 2012 mantech international announced its purchase of hbgary inc. 50 financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed other than to say it was an asset purchase which excludes legal and financial liabilities . 50 references edit a b hbgary at a glance www.hbgary.com a b hbgary detect . diagnose . respond . hbgary official website via www.hbgary.com on 2011 02 11 a b c d e f g h i j anderson nate 2011 02 09 . how one man tracked down anonymous and paid a heavy price . ars technica . retrieved 2011 02 09 . a b ragan steve 2011 02 09 . data intelligence firms proposed a systematic attack against wikileaks . the tech herald . monsters and critics . retrieved 2011 02 11 . a b c hbgary unveils digital dna technology press release karenb forensicfocus.com 3 12 2009 retr 2011 02 11 a b c anderson mark 29 february 2012 . cyber security firm hbgary bought by mantech international . sacramento business journal . retrieved 29 february 2012 . a b c researcher fingerprints the bad guys behind the malware kelly j. higgins dark reading 6 22 2010 retr 2011 02 11 a b basic malware analysis using responder professional by hbgary . black hat 174 ; technical security conference usa 2010 retr 2011 02 11 elliott justin 2011 02 16 . firm in wikileaks plot has deep ties to feds . salon.com . retrieved 2011 02 16 . anderson nate 2011 02 24 . anonymous vs. hbgary the aftermath . ars technica . retrieved 2011 02 25 . taylor jerome 2011 02 08 . hacktivists take control of internet security firms . the independent . london . retrieved 2011 02 11 . menn joseph 2011 02 04 . cyberactivists warned of arrest . financial times . retrieved 2011 02 11 . a b bright peter 2011 02 15 . anonymous speaks the inside story of the hbgary hack . ars technica . retrieved 2011 02 18 . a b olson parmy 2011 02 07 . victim of anonymous attack speaks out . forbes . retrieved 2011 02 11 . a b c leigh lundin 2011 02 20 . wikilicks . criminal brief . retrieved 2011 02 20 . ceo aaron barr thought he d uncovered the hackers identities and like rats they d scurry for cover . if he could nail them he could cover up the crimes h & w hbgary and boa planned bring down wikileaks decapitate anonymous and place his opponents in prison while collecting a cool fee . he thought he was 88 % right ; he was 88 % wrong . play by play of how hbgary federal tried to expose anonymous ... and got hacked instead mike masnick techdirt.com feb. 11th 2011 anonymous statement from hacked hbgary website anonymous feb. 2011 how one man tracked down anonymous and paid a heavy price . ars technica . retrieved 2016 02 20 . olson parmy 2011 02 06 . anonymous takes revenge on security firm for trying to sell supporters details to fbi . forbes . retrieved 2011 02 11 . http web.archive.org web 20131208062435 http www.h online.com security features anonymous makes a laughing stock of hbgary 1198176.html menn joseph 2011 02 07 . hacktivists retaliate against security expert . financial times . retrieved 2011 02 11 . anderson nate 2011 02 10 . virtually face to face how aaron barr revealed himself to anonymous . ars technica . retrieved 2011 02 11 . acohido byron jun 20 2011 . who s who among key lulzsec hackitivists . usa today . retrieved 3 june 2013 . leyden john 2011 02 17 . anonymous security firm hack used every trick in book . the register . retrieved 2011 02 18 . a b c ragan steve 2011 02 11 . firm targeting wikileaks cuts ties with hbgary apologizes to reporter . the tech herald . monsters and critics . retrieved 2011 02 11 . hbgary don t let this story die