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By Root 142 0

Financial Times story the day before, and now strange traffic was pouring in to HBGary Federal. With his research done and his story in print, Barr needed only to work up some conference slides and prepare for a meeting with the FBI, which had been tracking Anonymous for some time. So Barr ditched the covert identities he had been using to watch the group, and on February 5 he approached a person on Facebook whom he believed was the powerful CommanderX.

Barr’s apparent motives were multiple: to mitigate any revenge upon his company, but also to meet as equals with his hacker subjects. No harm, no foul, right? Anonymous didn’t agree. (Quotes in this article are provided verbatim, typos and all.)

Barr: CommanderX. This is my research… I am not going to release names I am merely doing security research to prove the vulnerability of social media so please tell [redacted] and [redacted] or whoever else is hitting our site to stop.

CommanderX: Uhhh…. not my doing! Just as a thought… wouldn’t that be valuable data to your research?

Barr: I am done with my research…doing my slides…I am not out to gut u guys. My focus is on social media vulnerabilities only. So please tell the folks there that I am not out to get you guys… I knew you guys were a risky target but nothing risked nothing gained. People can show their bravado thats fine I can deal with that. Just want the ‘leadership’ to know what my intent is…that will filter as it needs to I am sure.

CommanderX: ‘Leadership’ lmao [laughing my ass off] it has grown beyond my control, just as I intended.

Barr: … I will talk about aliases. I won’t talk about names. But please don’t play me a chump any more than you have to to protect anons cred. I know more than IRC aliases…. u have a lot of firepower and know how in some dark corners…hell some of them may even know Greg Hoglund the CEO of our other company. So if it is some of your guys just want to make sure they don’t get too aggressive.

CommanderX: Which website?

Barr: hbgaryfederal.com

CommanderX: … I warn you that your vulnerabilities are far more material. One look at your website locates all of your facilities. You might want to do something about that. Just being friendly. I hope you are being paid well.

“Come at us, bro”

Barr then entered an Anonymous IRC chat room, where his “CogAnon” profile had already been exposed. When he showed up, this is what greeted him. (Anonymous handles have been altered in this non-public section of chat.)

[23:47] guys I’ll tell you...it was only research...it has now become a criminal matter...

[23:48] our website was hacked...twitter account... email.... ok...guys if thats the way u want to play it.

[23:48] CogAnon: come at us bro

[23:48] I won’t...

[23:48] CogAnon: Hello.

[23:48] CogAnon: nice screencap earlier by the way, did Ted and [HBGary CEO] Penny enjoy it, faggot?

[23:49] not sure why u had to make it personal...I had 2 other usecases...

[23:49] but ok... I figured this might happen...I am not upset... it just takes a differnt path...

[23:51] ok see you guys later...not even close to end of career... :) need to finish my talk.

[23:52] maybe CogAnon will enjoy what’s uploading right now

[00:18] * CogAnon is now known as AaronBarr

The material “uploading right now” was apparently Barr’s private e-mails; Anonymous had infiltrated his company e-mail server, where Barr was the admin, and had taken more than 40,000 messages from three top execs. They were then uploaded to The Pirate Bay.

“What’s coming next is the delicious cake”

The next day, February 6, the attacks turned serious, and Barr realized the extent of what Anonymous had done to him and to his company, which was currently in negotiations to sell itself to a pair of interested buyers. This was no longer a game; it looked more like war. The sheer freewheeling raucousness of what follows illustrates as well as anything the nature of Anonymous, and it’s worth quoting at length. (A few unimportant bits have been stripped