I would never wish what happened to the people at HBGary on anyone (Dumping all their private emails? Deleting all their data?), but the more that comes out the harder it is to sympathize with them.
How do you do this crap and live with yourself after?
It's important to note that the sleazy stuff comes from HBGary Federal, a wholly owned but independent subsidiary of HBGary Inc. HBGary Federal appear to have been set up to do government work, and were struggling to get it so it appears that Barr and Vera went down a fairly dark path to keep things going.
The big question is how much of this was known to the top brass in the parent company. My guess is not a lot, as having met Penny and Greg I don't think they'd support the idea of going after wikileaks. In fact, even Karen Burke's emails about the anonymous stuff show that the parent company were quite uneasy about the whole anonymous research in general.
It does seem like Aaron Barr is a bit of a fool and quite a nasty piece of work to boot. I noticed his talk was removed from B-Sides SF. He should (for HBGary's sake, if not his own) do the decent thing and fall on his sword.
Anon wouldn't have targeted HBGary were it not for Aaron Barr's bragging that he had identified so-called "leaders and founders" and would be going public with that info, as well as giving it to LE. This is simply a matter of kicking the hornet's nest and suffering the consequences. Anonymous isn't highly skilled by any definition, but it's stupid to intentionally goad them into taking action against you. Especially given hbg fed's terrible security practices.
HBGary was a real piece of work it seems. Well, you become visible when you're sleazy and stupid.
The thing about this stuff is it was proposed to a law firm that worked for B of A.
I assume that the way a major corporation would operate is to never directly deal with "gutter punks" like HBGary but rather to hire someone to hire someone to "do something, I don't want to know what". When HBGary folds, I again assume that another group can be hired by a different law firm that can be hired by B of A, who still won't know anything about it.
my experience working on gov contracts and many stories such as this causes me to believe this (being middle man / providing deniability, PR scapegoat) is the primary service (some) lawfirms offer. accounting aggencies too.
What is interesting that are all these players discrediting and releasing each others documents: Wikileaks, Manning, HBGary, Anon. If you were to make a list of their fate from worst to best: Manning > Wikileaks > HBGary > Anon, it look like Anon very much come out on top of this pile.
How do you do this crap and live with yourself after?