Cyber war by right-wing extremists in private industry?

Anonymous to the rescue again!

What the actions of the radical right Republicans in Wisconsin prove – democracy and free speech, constitutions and civility be damned – the ends justifies the means. While the focus is on “Islamists,” Wikileaks and the “leftist group,” Anonymous, we see once again the threat imposed by radical and extremist right-wing elements in the Western world are being ignored.  Those ignored security threats, as argued before, are Geert Wilders and his hateful PVV, the EDL and European radical right “political parties,” the American (Regressive) Tea Party, radical Republicans in state and local governments, like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, and neo-Thatcherite conservatives (Mark Rutte), of course.Radical right elements of the Western world know how to use the cover of ignorance that they are given and they use it to engage in conduct that would have most of us in handcuffs.We now see that these elements involved in “cyber security” dabbing their toes into the waters of waging politically oriented, cyber warfare on Liberal, Leftist and other individuals and groups opposed to American conservative groups and policies.  Recently, US House Democrats have called on an investigation into the US Chamber of Commerce’s desire  to launch a cyber smear campaign against the perceived enemies of right-wing, Washington firms. The Chamber wanted to use the tools of cyber security in the “war on terror” against American citizens, such as journalists and progressive organizations. The smear of progressive groups and activists was to include fraud and forgery, “fake personas,” to infiltrate progressive groups, even smears against the families of  progressives, to intimidate and pressure. Read a Bar complaint against the law firm involved with the Chamber’s activities, This complaint of the use of “war on terror” tools of security firms is very chilling:

John W. Woods, Richard L. Wyatt Jr., and Robert T. Quackenboss are members of the District of Columbia Bar and employed by the firm, Hunton & Williams (“H&W”) in its Washington, D.C office. These lawyers, on behalf of their client, the United States Chamber of Commerce (“COC”), engaged, as the evidence below demonstrates, in an extended pattern of unethical behavior that included likely criminal conduct. Specifically, they solicited, conspired with and counseled three of its investigative private security firms to engage in domestic spying, fraud, forgery, extortion, cyber stalking, defamation, harassment, destruction of property, spear phishing, destruction of property, identity theft, computer scraping, cyber attacks, interference with business, civil rights violations, harassment, and theft.

Much of this right-wing, criminal activity came to light, in part, from the blunder of HBGary Federal’s Aaron Barr, who made the serious mistake of claiming that he was going to “expose members of Anonymous.” As he made these claims, Anonymous, was digging even deeper into Barr’s networks. The intend of Barr and his HBGary Federal was to cash in on its research by “flexing its muscle today by revealing the identities of all the top management within the group Anonymous.”  The intent of picking a fight with Anonymous was to obtain contracts for pricey security services from the US government.In the end – Anonymous was the real winner. The hacktivists had erased Barr’s Ipad, hijacked his Twitter account, defaced the HBGary Federal website, made off with company source code and exposed e-mails that discussed selling services to the Chamber for 2 million dollars to harass, intimidate and defame progressive journalists and activists. These criminal activities also served a right-wing ideological purpose against “liberals and leftists” and critics of conservative causes. One of those journalists that was seen as a threat to Chamber and right-wing interests was Glenn Greenwald :

From – Tue Feb 08 09:06:48 2011Subject: Re: first cutFrom: Aaron Barr <aaron@hbgary.com>Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 08:32:12 -0500Cc: Eli Bingham <ebingham@palantir.com>, BERICO-Sam.Kremin <skremin@bericotechnologies.com>To: Matthew Steckman <msteckman@palantir.com>One other thing. I think we need to highlight people like Glenn Greenwald. Glenn was critical in the Amazon to OVH transition and helped wikileaks provide access to information during the transition.It is this level of support we need to attack. These are established proffessionals that have a liberal bent, but ultimately most of them if pushed will choose professional preservation over cause, such is the mentality of most business professionals. Without the support of people like Glenn wikileaks would fold.Aaron

Apparently, Greenwald was targeted for his support for Wikileaks and for his “liberal bent.”  Wikileaks and Anonymous were the chief targets of these cyber criminal-ideologues of the right-wing embedded in cyber security firms, and we should be alert for other ideologues that are involved in “cyber security,” who are also in search of instant fame and fortune as right-wing “cyber mercenaries.”The ideology of American conservatives espoused by many currents in the Republican Party of today is one of lawlessness and the “end justifies the means.” Laws, rules, constitutions, civil rights and basic civility don’t matter to today’s neoconservative, Tea Party Republican. These right-wing criminals are being given the cover and now operate with impunity. These increasing threat of cyber attacks by right-wing radicals and extremists working in cyber  security firms is something we should be aware of … and thank God above for the reassurances and hacktivism of Anonymous!