In continuation with the previous blog. This is the last in the series of the HBGary Federal Hack Blog.
Aaron Barr, CEO of HBGary Federal, had devised a method to co-relate Social Networking sites information with the real names behind the Anonymous.
The method seemingly complex, revolved around a Hypothetical Assumption that a hacker will be using the same social networking persona or the hacker will be adding to his friends list the same guys who are present in the real-self persona.
Logically, no sane person who wants to hide his/her identity will ever commit the mistake of
1: Adding friends to his anonymous persona and to his real-life persona.
2: Hiding IP is the first task a hacker would do.
The USP of Anonymous is anonymity and every individual has learnt it the hard way and the major driving force of Anonymous is the ethos they stand for, they do not stand for commercialization of their acts, which makes them a force to recon with, cause money cant by happiness, money cant buy your ethos – an old saying.
Aaron Barr’s logic of co-relating the timestamps with the posts and tweets vis’a’vis the handles (IRC Nicknames) is flawed to the core, cause the operations of Anonymous are not secretive by nature and is based on volunteers for certain tasks, which like minded people gladly accept. So, a group which has been assigned the task of tweeting will tweet and the group which has the task of Fbing will do it. One needs to understand that, Anonymous is a task oriented group and Aaron Barr should have realized this from the word go. Others may find their mode of operation haphazard but the mode of functionality of Anonymous is similar to Chaos theory or more specifically the butterfly effect, one ought to have an innate understanding of dynamics involved.
Aaron Barr, committed a few fatal mistakes:
1: Know your opponent – he did not.
2: Never reveal yourself – he revealed himself, not only to his opponents but to his subordinates too. His subordinates did not support his actions which forced him to tread the lonely path.
3: Rule of one man army states that, when infiltrating into un-chartered waters, ensure that you have got nothing to lose, and Aaron Barr had everything to lose.
4: Trust – the success of infiltration depends on the level of trust which in turn directly affects the outcome. His interaction lacked the trust of Anonymous. Trust is dependent on a sole fact and ie. Your deeds – you accept tasks and give more than that is expected.
Compare this with the Social Engineering Attack carried out on rootkit.com’s admin, The 16 year old was able to gain trust without revealing the true identity and the 16 year old had nothing to lose, if the admin found the mail suspicious then anonymous would have stopped then and there itself.
PS: This has a great plot for a movie or mini-series and that’s called Opportunism, and was also the root cause for the events which led to the hack of HBGary Federal by Anonymous.
For latest around the world abut HBGary Federal
In continuation with the previous blog. This is the last in the series of the HBGary Federal Hack Blog.
Aaron Barr, CEO of HBGary Federal, had devised a method to co-relate Social Networking sites information with the real names behind the Anonymous.
The method seemingly complex, revolved around a Hypothetical Assumption that a hacker will be using the same social networking persona or the hacker will be adding to his friends list the same guys who are present in the real-self persona.
Logically, no sane person who wants to hide his/her identity will ever commit the mistake of
1: Adding friends to his anonymous persona and to his real-life persona.
2: Hiding IP is the first task a hacker would do.
The USP of Anonymous is anonymity and every individual has learnt it the hard way and the major driving force of Anonymous is the ethos they stand for, they do not stand for commercialization of their acts, which makes them a force to recon with, cause money cant by happiness, money cant buy your ethos – an old saying.
Aaron Barr’s logic of co-relating the timestamps with the posts and tweets vis’a’vis the handles (IRC Nicknames) is flawed to the core, cause the operations of Anonymous are not secretive by nature and is based on volunteers for certain tasks, which like minded people gladly accept. So, a group which has been assigned the task of tweeting will tweet and the group which has the task of Fbing will do it. One needs to understand that, Anonymous is a task oriented group and Aaron Barr should have realized this from the word go. Others may find their mode of operation haphazard but the mode of functionality of Anonymous is similar to Chaos theory or more specifically the butterfly effect, one ought to have an innate understanding of dynamics involved.
Aaron Barr, committed a few fatal mistakes:
1: Know your opponent – he did not.
2: Never reveal yourself – he revealed himself, not only to his opponents but to his subordinates too. His subordinates did not support his actions which forced him to tread the lonely path.
3: Rule of one man army states that, when infiltrating into un-chartered waters, ensure that you have got nothing to lose, and Aaron Barr had everything to lose.
4: Trust – the success of infiltration depends on the level of trust which in turn directly affects the outcome. His interaction lacked the trust of Anonymous. Trust is dependent on a sole fact and ie. Your deeds – you accept tasks and give more than that is expected.
Compare this with the Social Engineering Attack carried out on rootkit.com’s admin, The 16 year old was able to gain trust without revealing the true identity and the 16 year old had nothing to lose, if the admin found the mail suspicious then anonymous would have stopped then and there itself.
PS: This has a great plot for a movie or mini-series and that’s called Opportunism, and was also the root cause for the events which led to the hack of HBGary Federal by Anonymous.
For latest around the world abut HBGary Federal
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