02.15.11

Odious corporate spying firms, continued

Posted in Culture of Lickspittle, Cyberterrorism at 2:40 pm by George Smith

Unsurprisingly, more damning e-mails recovered from HBGary Federal by the Anonymous hacking group put to the lie CYA declarations that only one rogue employee, Aaron Barr, was involved.

Hundreds of e-mail show Barr’s collaboration with employees at Berico Technologies and Palantir.

Palantir, naturally, stands to lose something from this scandal.

It’s website brags about how the company was started by computer experts who value privacy and civil liberties above all. A claim that can now be regarded as insincere eyewash in light of the current attack on WikiLeaks/Glenn Greenwald scandal.

In a denial issued soon after the scandal began to break in the mainstream news, Palantir CEO Alex Karp issued a statement — here — attempting to separate the firm from the imbroglio.

Karp, on the matter:

Palantir Technologies provides a software analytic platform for the analysis of data. We do not provide – nor do we have any plans to develop – offensive cyber capabilities. Palantir Technologies does not build software that is designed to allow private sector entities to obtain non-public information, engage in so-called “cyber attacks??? or take other offensive measures. I have made clear in no uncertain terms that Palantir Technologies will not be involved in such activities. Moreover, we as a company, and I as an individual, always have been deeply involved in supporting progressive values and causes. We plan to continue these efforts in the future.

The right to free speech and the right to privacy are critical to a flourishing democracy. From its inception, Palantir Technologies has supported these ideals and demonstrated a commitment to building software that protects privacy and civil liberties.

The hacking group Anonymous provides a searchable database of HBGary Federal e-mails here.

Using it, it is an uncomplicated process to uncover Palantir employees working on the proposal to attack WikiLeaks, coordinated with the Hunton & Williams legal firm, the deal started by Palantir connecting the group with the Washington lawyers. The aim — to pitch the attack capability to Bank of America or, more broadly, apparently corporate America as a grand market ripe for services attacking critics.

Some samples, the first on the attack proposal from Palantir employee Matthew Steckman:

On Dec 3, 2010, at 8:52 AM, Matthew Steckman wrote:

> Updated with Strengths/Weaknesses and a spotlight on Glenn Greenwald…thanks Aaron!
>

This next e-mail, from an employee — John Woods, at Hunton & Williams:

On Dec 2, 2010, at 3:55 PM, “Woods, John” > wrote:

Richard and I am meeting with senior executives at a large US Bank tomorrow regarding Wikileaks. We want to sell this team as part of what we are talking about. I need a favor. I need five to six slides on Wikileaks – who they are, how they operate and how this group may help this bank. Please advise if you can help get me something ASAP. My call is at noon.

Here is another, describing the proposal as an “A Team doc”:

A-team doc

We need to blow these guys away with descriptions of our capabilities, IP, and talent. Make them think that we are Bond, Q, and money penny all packaged up with a bow.

Matthew Steckman
Palantir Technologies | Forward Deployed Engineer

And there is an e-mail indicating the project was green-lighted through Palantir CEO Alex Karp:

Apologies for taking this long to get back to you. Eli and I had to run this way up the chain (as you can imagine). The short of it is that we got approval from Dr. Karp and the Board to go ahead with the modified 40/30/30 breakdown proposed. These were not fun conversations, but we are committed to this team and we can optimize the cost structure in the long term (let’s demonstrate success and then take over this market :)).

The “40/30/30 breakdown” refers to the way profits would be shared on any deal through Hunton & Williams.

And here is a haphazard e-mail discussing pricing for the attack proposal. It varies from 2 million to 200,000/month.

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Rob Rosenberger at vmyths/security-critics adds a post on the Barr matter, as well as another, here.

He writes:

Now comes a new era for the computer security industry … outrightalleged criminal activity within its ranks …

The global computer security arena is now so profitable and so willing to prostitute itself — with customers so eager to spend money and reporters so willing to write stories — that it shouldn’t surprise us to find outrightalleged criminals with a digital store front.

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Addendum: Alert readers may raise their eyebrows. It’s been a long time since anyone referred to me and used my middle initial.

And the only reason it was employed on the Internet was because the publisher of my book on virus-writers insisted upon it in 1994. A few years later the man ran off to live in Belize and seemingly vanished by jumping up his ass.

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