Anonymous Cyber Attack on HBGary Federal Exposes Sensitive Data

On Sunday night, cyber vigilantes 'Anonymous' went full throttle against a security firm that claimed to know the identities of the group, which operates "Operation Payback" and reportedly includes members of the "/b/" bulletin board 4chan.org. The hack exposed Social Security numbers, publicized private e-mails, deleted company files, replaced the phone system, and attacked the LinkedIn accounts of employees at California-based HBGary Federal, a security firm.

On Friday Aaron Barr, CEO of HBGary Federal, was quoted in the Financial Times as having identified the founding leaders of Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for recent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on companies that had severed ties with WikiLeaks. Anonymous was also allegedly responsible for shutting down pro-government Web sites in Egypt and Tunisia. Forbes said Barr was planning to sell the information to the FBI.

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