HBGary – The Man Who Took on Anonymous and Lost

05-30-23
Listen to "HBGary - The Man Who Took on Anonymous and Lost" on Spreaker.

Episode Transcription

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Unknown Speaker We gotta get started. Okay, yeah. Hey man. Hey man, no talking to your store. Speaker 1 I'll finish it later. Okay, amen. Have you ever heard of Aaron bar? Unknown Speaker Aaron bar? Yes. It's the bar exam. Speaker 1 Close. Maybe Maybe you've heard of HB Gary. Unknown Speaker This is dead bill. Unknown Speaker No bar. Bill Burr. Speaker 2 Bill Barr exists. I'm not a guy that wasn't as really as that. He was attorney general. Unknown Speaker I only know about Bill Barr. Unknown Speaker Bill Barr was the attorney general for whatever. Unknown Speaker I'm not interested in that. Unknown Speaker I am not either. Unknown Speaker No HB Gary. Have you heard of HB Gary? Speaker 2 HB Gary? Yeah, no, I don't know. Perfect. Well, this is great. And you don't have to do this Dr. Waterboarding first they liked that part. Someone using your Twitter account to tweet your social security number. Should we sit in charge and say my ex girlfriend's dad's rich? That's pretty funny. That's pretty you know how sometimes toasts doesn't come out as dark as you want it but then other times it comes out like two dark things I learned last night Speaker 1 Aaron Barr he is also from the top of the story he Jeremy that sounds his mouth there's no can he just did that alright refreshing Unknown Speaker like we did to clarify this Unknown Speaker need to clarify. Oh man. Aaron in Regina Speaker 1 area. Theory HB Gary HD Garin Parr Aaron bar. So we'll Unknown Speaker say in person. Unknown Speaker Yes. Speaker 2 Sorry to ruin your story. space just for audio listener. His face was like, Why did you do that? He's like, Yeah, they are. Okay. And I was gonna do a big reveal. And you mess it up. So Aaron variables got some weird energy today. I want to fight. Speaker 1 Yeah, you do. What do you were fine. You should have been in that crowd with me last night. Then. Get all the bruises. Unknown Speaker From where you're at a concert last? Yeah. Speaker 1 Okay is the ABR that was? There was a there's a listener. They're a fan of the show. And I pointed Alex out and she wanted to Alex's autograph. And Alex refused. Yeah, she did. Actually. She said, Unknown Speaker she said Alex goes, Speaker 1 she says, she said, Wow, he looks way cooler than you guys make. So Speaker 2 oh, she must have been looking at somebody else. Well, the lighting does that. You know, if you see Alex in a dark crowd, it's kind of cool. Speaker 1 I mean, you see him in the lights like we do. This is a cool guy. And I will say Alex, Speaker 2 your lights? Did you do Alexa, turn on the podcasts? Oh, good Speaker 1 catch. I will say to Alex was working. So like he was like, I mean, he's making lights happen? He ran on stage and fix something. Okay. Speaker 2 If you did you watch him more than you watch the concert? Because I absolutely would have no. Are you a second? Unknown Speaker time so I couldn't see him. Speaker 2 Alex, are you the type of sound guy that's back there? And you're just like, or are you just because there's multiple kinds of sound guys Speaker 1 answer that by Mike answer that by doing whenever Unknown Speaker groovin. And then one is just which one are you? Okay, anyway, yeah, so Unknown Speaker depends a lot on how wrong things are going. Unknown Speaker Oh, that's fair. That's good. Speaker 1 But yeah, they want to Alex's didn't even ask for mine to ask for Alex's. And I just didn't give it to him. So I mean, Unknown Speaker you. You didn't Unknown Speaker ask him for an autograph last night. Well, no, he Speaker 3 came over said hi. told me that story and pointed at generally a crowd. I pointed you out to that person. Sure. I don't think they exist him Speaker 2 you could have you had an opportunity to do something funnier. What which is that person doesn't know what Alex looks like. You could have pointed and Alex is here right now. And then be like, go ask for his autograph. And it's just someone I didn't know that person would be like, I asked Alex and Alex was super weird. He was like, shirt. Speaker 3 You had the opportunity. If he actually sent the person over. I was gonna sign his name. Speaker 1 That's good. That's good. Well, I was gonna I was gonna try to bring them to you after the show. But security is trying to kick us out. Yeah. If you're not buying merch you got Yeah, that sounds like I'm trying to find out like, yeah, they want or whatever, get out here. Anyways, so Aaron Barr Aaron, he he started his career in the military, he joined the Navy and was working like naval intelligence. So there's a few tours going on. You're all over the world early 2000s going all over the world doing naval intelligence, recent story finding dolphins and things I don't know, Navy does. The other tracking down dolphin hackers just travels all over the world ends up in the late 2000s 2009 2010 finds himself in a combat scenario, which is not what he bargained for, which is just join the military. After getting that, he was like, he's like, you know, I liked the intelligence side of this. I don't like the like, combat. Yeah. Aereo that getting shot outside of this? Sure. And so he said, I want to get into civilian work. So you can still get shot out there. But it's not as hot as Yeah, it's it's a little more rare, a little Unknown Speaker barely more rarely more rare. Speaker 1 So he quits his job in the military. He calls up one of his contacts who's like a big big money. High Rollers. Guy. Yeah, you know, one of those guys. Unknown Speaker What? Yeah, so he calls his ex girlfriend Unknown Speaker says, Hey, I got an idea is Unknown Speaker I got this financial play, you gotta do it. Speaker 1 And so he says, he says, Here's what I want to do. He says, I've been working for the Navy, should Speaker 2 we sit in charge and say my ex girlfriend's dad's rich. That's pretty Speaker 1 funny. That's pretty funny. So he's like he's accused the play. Alright. I've been working for the Navy for like a decade. And in my time in the Navy. In intelligence, what I did was I would track down high value targets and figure out where these people were located. Yeah. By tracking their online footprint, and be able to figure out who these people are not only who these people were, where they are located, and so the military could get their hands on. Sure. And he says, I think this would be something that we could use as a contract. This is what I do as a party trick. I know he Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Literally. Facebook stalking is like, he's like, Facebook stalking business. It's my favorite like little you're weirdly good at it though. I feel like everybody can Facebook stalk I know. And every everybody's done it. Everybody's Facebook stop. Speaker 2 It's my favorite thing. You sit across from someone and go, you know, what, you know? Is this your grandma's house? That's my favorite thing to do. It's very, it's very spooky. And it's like I'm really good at it Speaker 1 takes him like 10 minutes. Tops. Yeah, well, we'll meet someone new at dinner. And he'll just check out the conversation on his phone and he'll Speaker 2 find people think on social media and I'm bomb sleuth, and Speaker 1 he'll find pictures there first dog that died when they were like 11. And I'm Speaker 2 sorry about freak is a million separate. Okay. Cry at the tape. It's really it was a sad time. But I do it for the thrill. Unknown Speaker As a stranger's your Unknown Speaker ex wife. Sorry about that. Yeah, Unknown Speaker looks like things are going well for your ex wife's Unknown Speaker dad. Speaker 2 Didn't know we weren't married that long. Long enough to get to the meet your family part of marriage, saying Speaker 1 yeah, that's the second week. We didn't make it past week one. Sometimes people don't make it so that you don't make it. Yeah, so his business model is Facebook stalking. And he wanted to sell that to corporations and the government to be like, Yeah, we could track down high value targets. And his investor Buddy was like, great idea. And so I mean, to be fair, it's 2009 2010. So Facebook still young. I think a lot of people hadn't figured out that they could just do this. And it didn't take a lot of like, you don't have to spend 10s of 1000s of dollars to have someone do this for you. Speaker 2 Hey, yes, you do. And you also have to buy our course where we teach you how to do it. You want to find people's grandma's house. Find my grandma's house.com For my five step course. This is it. Listen, now I'm into business. This guy I'm in now right? Find my grandma's house.com Speaker 1 How you spelling grandma's house. Like grandma's house g r a n d m a s okay? Just make it What else would you spell it? Go ahead, GER, I am a grandma. Unknown Speaker If you're stupid, I Unknown Speaker guess I'm buying the domain. Unknown Speaker Is it really free? Is that mean? Is it not? I mean, it's available. Yeah, yeah, it's Unknown Speaker standard price by my Unknown Speaker grandma's house doc. Unknown Speaker Oh, five. Sorry, by grandma's house, Unknown Speaker find my grandma's house.com Unknown Speaker It's on the screen for Speaker 2 my do it like a like a really bad infomercial from, like, 2008 Speaker 1 like, rolling across the screen. Just really invasive, all of Speaker 2 my grandma's house.com right now for a five step plan of how to how to do this, you know, and you can sign up for my course it's $5,000. Unknown Speaker And you learn how to learn. Speaker 2 It is crazy that there's a whole side of tic toc. That's just people selling courses on how to sell courses, Speaker 1 you know, saying yeah, is bonkers, like, every course on selling every single Speaker 2 time someone goes, here's a side hustle is gonna make you $200 an hour. It's like no, it's not. No, they're not making the money doing that. They're selling a course. Speaker 1 Yep. Yep. And that's one of the Do you want an email with this? Was that I'm checking out do you want an Speaker 2 email with this? Fine. Fine, my grandma's house.com? Unknown Speaker Yeah. Do you want to jaren? Unknown Speaker Creeper. Find my grandma's house. Dad, Speaker 1 let me tell you about error bar. I'm going to abandon the cart for a second. We'll come back to this. Speaker 2 If it's purchased by the time when we're done, that's on you. Unknown Speaker Okay, finally. I'm ready. So. Speaker 2 Okay, so he basically is like, All right, we can use this define high value targets. And the idea being that, you know, with this investor, we assemble a team, we go find these high value targets, we turn them into the FBI, we get the reward money. Yes. Okay. I figured it out. Yeah, great. Grandma's address was. Thanks, actually, you know what? Speaker 2 Hey, I wanted to give you a heads up that our Taylan patron hangout is happening on June 29. At 6:30pm. By the time that happens, I'll be a married man. So I'm taking time away from my beautiful wife to come hang out with our $20 patron supporters. So maybe like, you know, be thankful, okay, is what I'm saying. But for real, we're very thankful for our Patreon supporters, because without you the show doesn't happen. So every month we do a hangout for a $20 tier and the next one is on June 29. At 630 Come hang out with Tim and married me, you know, it's gonna be great Speaker 1 so, yeah, so he talks to this guy and he he's pitches the idea to him and the guy's like, Yeah, let's let's go for it. So they find found the company, HP Gary. Okay, so was it technically him? Eg the company's HP Carrie. Oh, the company's HP. Sure. Yeah. And Aaron Aaron bars the CEO Gary is the name of the investor who invested in it. I don't know what HB stands for. Hot boy Speaker 2 it was the trepat boy I don't know what he stands for. First thing you think of Ra is for HB boy Unknown Speaker Okay Unknown Speaker go ahead. Speaker 1 So let's get started trying to sell their services to the government and mega corporations. All Speaker 2 these government's like, Hey, we're doing this like this. This is like our thing. Speaker 1 And they're like, did you learn that from us? Yeah. And so yeah, no one's buying everyone's like, yeah, we're not interested. This is not something that we should pay for. We can do this ourselves. Speaker 2 So he turns on him. He finds personal information about them and then goes I will release this if it says blackmailing people close. Ish hot blackmail. Gary. Speaker 1 Gloves ish. So here's what he did. He was like, he's like, I need to build up a resume. And to show that this is something that we can do and we're good at it. Okay, it's not just like some dude off the street who's like Facebook, stalking your friends? Like finding sure grandma's house. He's fine. Doing grandma's house. Speaker 2 Anyone can find grandma's house. I'm hunting down, grandpa. Unknown Speaker Well, let me go get another domain, hunting grandpa.com Speaker 2 And you know that it's gonna be some old man in Montana, who's like I love I love shooting elk or whatever. But I mean it like I'm hunting. Unknown Speaker Let me get that in the car real quick. Unknown Speaker Is it available hunting? grandpa.com Unknown Speaker And now how is grandpa? Unknown Speaker He's hunting, Speaker 1 hunting grandpa.com All right, yeah, it's available. Make it yours. Here we go. Speaker 2 While we're doing this, please support us on Patreon, I would say good 50% of the support that we receive goes to domains these days. You know, you can support our show on Patreon or you can just go to GoDaddy and give them money either way. Go Daddy's getting it. You know? Unknown Speaker Go to godaddy.com/chillin Unknown Speaker We don't have a sponsorship. But you can try. Speaker 1 You can try it. It'll probably redirect you back comes out in five weeks. We got time. Yeah, we'll call them. Anyways, so Aaron, Aaron says, I need to build a resume. Yeah, I need to start. I'm gonna start sleuthing. Yeah, yeah. And I'm gonna show that I'm capable. Well, I guess you could Speaker 2 do that though. Like if FBI has got targets and they've got rewards out for people. You could? Unknown Speaker Yeah, you could make some money doing Unknown Speaker that. Yeah. Speaker 1 But he wasn't trying to go find bounties he was trying to like, get government contracts. Yeah, for sure. Not like bounty work. Speaker 2 I'm not sure. Yeah. But isn't trying to be like your neighbor. The Bounty Hunter. Two jugs of tea. Unknown Speaker Hey, it was sketchy behavior. Okay, Unknown Speaker one Jugger justice. Unknown Speaker What episode that we talked about was the apartment. Speaker 2 I want to say black Tom explosion, but I'm not sure on that one. Speaker 1 That could be it. I mean, it wasn't the apartment. So that was dog boy. A long time ago, too. Anyways, um, so he's, he's trying to build up his resume. He says he says I need to find some high value name that I can expose. And show that I know how to do this. Okay. Now it's, it's late 2010 At the time, says look it in the media. What's a big name in the media? He says, You know what, Brock Obama, no one knows where he lives. That's a joke. No, he says anonymous, everybody's talking about anonymous. No one knows who they are. No one knows anything about the structure about who's a part of it, where any of them are located. And they were out wreaking havoc doing posting their creepy videos online and stuff. You know, Speaker 2 yeah. What were they doing? You should do an episode on them. Because I don't really know what the deal was. I mean, they were hacking. Are they though? They Yeah, they've been posting Twitter videos and being like, we've hacked this person, you know, Unknown Speaker the videos were probably that was the best part. Speaker 2 I just think about somewhere in a basement. They're filming that, you know, saying like, like, Sure, they're getting crazy information on people that they don't want that out there. Yeah. But then they go, we need to sit down and record a video and they're in a basement and suburban Ohio. We have uncovered a video you know, and your mom's at Unknown Speaker the top of the stairs like a platter. You guys fish Unknown Speaker sticks are ready. And so Speaker 1 I mean, most likely, most likely, that's the scenario. But anyway, so he says he says I need to find out I need to write down anonymous and make them non Anonymous. Speaker 2 Anonymous is not fine an hour this is mom.com Fine, ominous gotta find her. And those fish digs, dude. Speaker 1 So um, it is that's a mom and it's a mom I'm gonna go on Unknown Speaker dude. I'm doing too many tangents Speaker 1 so so he I'm standing in the way he finds their their dark web chat room where they're doing all their engagement is their Slack channel or their nonnamous Discord. And he he's like I'm, I want to enlist. I want to be a part of anonymous and they're like, cool. Welcome to the board. Welcome to the team. What are your skills? And he says, here's all my skills. And they're like, none of them relate to what we're doing here But welcome, I guess. Speaker 2 What are your skills? Oh, yeah, I got a lot. You know how sometimes toasts doesn't come out as dark as you want it? But then other times it comes out like too dark I get it just right Speaker 1 on any toaster, put out any toaster, I can give me. I can touch on a cheap Speaker 2 toaster. One of those little rolly ones that you put it on it was, you know, like a little. I've been saying this Unknown Speaker for years. Yeah. Unknown Speaker Toast. That's that was a lot of my time. Unknown Speaker That was most of my last 10. And I don't want to reveal this to the public but I I did figure out where yields come. I was just the thing. I interested in that. Yeah, I've put it in the toaster and it Unknown Speaker toasted the yield. They told me Speaker 2 to do this carb waterboarding first they liked that part. Yeah, they really? Were they drew the line. I'm a family. I'll tell you where they are. I'll tell you. More importantly, I'll tell you how they came to be. That's what you're after. Okay. Speaker 1 So he joins us and he creates a username. cog, a non cog in a machine. Okay. Coggan on. And he starts like just kind of being a part of the board, not really doing a lot, not really engaging, but just kind of paying attention to all the conversations and what they're doing and things like that. Sure. Over time, he starts to piece together a hierarchy and figure out who are the people that emerge? Yeah, in running the show. And what he begins to do is he goes to Facebook, and he finds everybody on Facebook, that is likes anything that has to do with Anonymous or is reached are sharing things or posting articles or some what seems like they're interested in anonymous in any way. Yeah. And he adds them on Facebook, because this is 2010. This is yeah, when you add a final question. Oh, this is cool. Let's be friends. Unknown Speaker Yeah. A lot of people Speaker 1 I don't know. It's so weird. That was a weird time. So you started reading all these people? And what he would do is he would get on the chat room. Speaker 2 It was like some people would have like 5000 friends. Yeah, that was where it was kept. Speaker 1 And you'd be like, you don't know that many people. And I know this. I've gotten a lot of friends. Yeah. Yeah. But they would he would watch them on the on the chat room. Yeah. And watch the all the conversation. And then when they would sign off, he would go check Facebook and see if anybody signed on. And he would keep checking that. And he said if I got enough data points of here's a person who likes anonymous. And here's a person in anonymous chat room. And if, if it happened enough times, I don't know what the number was. But if have enough time where it was sign off sign on. He's like, that's probably then. What seems kind of clever, but Speaker 2 it also seems like you're sitting in front of two screens all day and just being like, sorry, being like Unknown Speaker Alex, oh, Speaker 2 that was a call back to a joke I made maybe, maybe 15. And Unknown Speaker you didn't call it because you said are you the guy that goes are you the guy he goes? Uh huh. There you Speaker 2 you were you were doing this one. So you know what? One of us pays our bills with like comedy and stuff. And the other one gets stupid tattoos. So Unknown Speaker are you talking about right? Yeah. Unknown Speaker You can't you can't say that. She listens to this. Are you wanting to cut it out? Or will she be my wife by the time this comes out? I Speaker 1 don't know. I think we might be there might be there. Alright, so well. We'll see if she calls it. I think we know your first marriage. And it's not bad. That's a good that's a good first one, you know? Speaker 2 Yeah. I imagine our first marriage fight will be the day after the wedding. And she sets six alarms and I go no, that's over now. And she'll go well, why don't I go because I'm the spiritual leader of this Unknown Speaker was one alarm in this house? I Speaker 1 chose not to wake up but she sets an alarm to reminder of everything throughout our day, dude. So like all day is just an alarm going Speaker 2 Reagan's morning routine is to sleep through four alarms, not sleep through show wake up, turn them off. Yeah, whatever. I Guess. And then she's got them set every five minutes to show that she knows where she's at. Yeah. Speaker 1 And the different alarm tones. Yeah, like each one. It's like, oh, yeah, it's that one that I need to really get. Speaker 2 That's when she's no no, because like, this is like during her like, you know, morning face routine and stuff. And then she the way this is how she explains it is that she's like, well, now I know when this one goes off. I've got like, 15 minutes left, and I go that sounds like torture to me. Yeah, that does. Speaker 1 I agree with that. Just get up. Yeah, just yeah, just like, oh, Speaker 2 so my, my solution is I just had to be I used to be awake before every day on every day, Unknown Speaker I have to leave before she would have to get out Speaker 2 of bed. When I did, my solution is I'll stay. We'll see how we'll see how that goes. You know, that's where I imagine our first fight is going Speaker 1 to be I'm looking forward to it. Hey, thanks for checking out this episode. If you like it, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Speaking of future episodes, we have a ton of past episodes. We have a back catalogue of well over 100 episodes. So check those out. My current favorite is Nelly Bly. She was a journalist from the early 1900s, who totally changed the industry, especially for women in the industry. Super cool story, but also kind of crazy. Some of the things that she did. We had a lot of fun on that episode. So check that out. Don't forget to subscribe, but ultimately, just thanks for being here. Speaker 1 All right, so Gary, they, Speaker 2 he he's done this obviously he's got his two screens. Yeah. That's a lot of work of just moderately, like, just, yeah, snacking, and just watching. Yep. Status. Its intelligence work right there. Speaker 1 That's not but okay. And so he's he's taking notes. And he gets to a point after a few months of this where he's now figured out it not only the hierarchy of anonymous, but the identity identities of a lot of people who are involved in anonymous by using this method. Speaker 2 It feels like they wouldn't be that sloppy, though. But, sure. Unknown Speaker So it is 2010. Speaker 1 So he, he's got this figured out. So he writes a white paper and submits it to this conference, this like cybersecurity conference. And he's like, I want to be a guest speaker. And they're like, Wow, this is cool. Okay, yeah, come on. And he's like, he's like, he's like, I figured out who Anonymous is, and talks about his methodology, and then reveals everybody, and then post conference, Unknown Speaker this conference. And the conference leaders are just like, somebody shoot that guy. Unknown Speaker The compensators are anonymous. None of them on the screen. And they're just like. Speaker 1 So he finishes this conference, and he uploads that white paper online, logs in as Coggan on and posted it in the chat. And it's like, Have you guys seen this, like acting like, he's not him? Speaker 2 Actually, like, they've done it to him. And they're, like, cut the crap, Aaron. And you're like, Speaker 1 yeah, so he posts that and it's like, a people interacted with it whenever it wasn't like a crazy thing. Sure. And he, immediately later that day, starts getting emails from all these corporations from the FBI. And everyone's like, hey, let's have a meeting on Monday. This was a Friday the conference, and he starts getting all these email these meetings scheduled with all these big players that he's targeting. Otter day. And so he's like, hey, it worked. Speaker 2 And they're like, hey, the FBI is like, so we're anonymous. So just so we're clear, just so you know. Yeah. Just so you understand here, and we're gonna kill you now. Speaker 1 You are. You don't you know that thing you do about toast? We're gonna have you do that to yourself. Golden brown, but enough to be dead. So he, he, he goes into the weekend yelling, okay. On Monday. Yeah, he's like I got means the FBI got me. There's all these big banks and corporations that I've been trying to get meetings with Sure. He's like the businesses. Speaker 2 Fargo here we go baby. I got the FBI. One. I got Wells Fargo it to you know, pretty stacked Unknown Speaker day and I got Toys R Us at Speaker 2 Circuit City for 2010. They're still around. You know, Unknown Speaker companies are the companies that are about to collapse. Unknown Speaker This VBS is like let's do this thing. So he, Elizabeth Holmes is there somehow. Speaker 1 So he's got these meetings scheduled. He goes on the weekend now knowing I just targeted anonymous and so they're probably are gonna clap back try Unknown Speaker to fight. Yeah. So he moves. Speaker 1 So he's like increases as his internet security at home. He changes all his passwords, right? Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah, start using Duck Duck go or whatever that browser is. He logs Speaker 1 into a VPN watching Netflix in Spain or something like that. He's like, That's a cool side effect of this. Unknown Speaker Yeah, this security guy Netflix before everyone else. Is a cool side effect. Speaker 1 Crazy, man. Yeah, there let's internet. Netflix was out in 2010. Right? Speaker 2 Streaming? No, surely it's 2011. No way, Speaker 1 because he was like, Colin, by the time we got to college and college was 2012. Speaker 2 I don't think it was that common by the time we got to college. But yeah, Speaker 1 interesting. Anyways, so he, he's watching, he's watching the situation pretty closely. Sure is a Super Bowl weekend. So on Super Bowl Sunday, he wakes up in the morning, or what year 2011? Oh, maybe isn't Netflix. So it's Super Bowl Sunday. He's paying close attention to everything that's going on with the Super Bowl and also with his internet security. And he logs on to cog to the cockpit on an account. And he's got a message from one of the people he thought was the anonymous leaders. And the guy's like, Hey, are you open for some work? And he was like, depends what kind of work he's like. It's out in Washington, DC. And he's like, he's like, okay. He's like, what's the job? And he's like, Well, there's this cybersecurity company that's been meddling in our affairs. Could you help us out and take him down for us? And he was like, what's the company? Because his company is based in DC. Hot boy, Gary. Boy. It was a competitor. And so he's like, Oh, he's so he is he's like, okay, cool. They don't know. Like, they're not. They're not on me. And then he's like, he's like, sure. Yeah, he's like, to me over the details. That guy sends him all the details. And he's like, he's okay. Also, by the way, the guy from Anonymous is like, hey, check your Twitter. Unknown Speaker And that's a power move, dude. Speaker 1 It's patrons log into Twitter. And he's locked out of his Twitter. Yeah, so it gets on his computer. And Google's itself, finds his Twitter. And on his Twitter, the last tweet was just his social security number. Unknown Speaker As a good time, Speaker 1 and so he goes, and all of his accounts, his email, his social, his World of Warcraft, he's locked out of all his passwords, of course, you Speaker 2 I hate you threw that in there. His World of Warcraft, probably the most devastating loss, honestly. Speaker 1 And so hopefully, wow. What am I gonna do? And so Speaker 2 that's a power move. I do like that. That is very much like the me turning the laptop around to reveal your grandma's house. It's the same in my mind as someone using your Twitter account to tweet your social security number. You know, it's not the same level at all. Yeah, but it feels like it. That's it's such a good moment. I love that. I love that for them. Speaker 1 He goes, he jumps on HB Garry's website and is changed literally just a message that says HB carry has been owned. And then he jumps back to the chat and jumps on the chat. And he's like, he's like, Hey, do you guys know what's going on with hp? Gary? And the guys like, yeah, that's that's the that's the company we are, we know who you are Aaron. And, and then he notices that his router is blinkin. And so they're on his local network. And his iPad gets wiped, his computer gets wiped literally all of his devices, all of his accounts got hacked. They leak all of his emails up online. So they do all your posts that they do with their video, Rick Speaker 2 dude, if my emails got like, likely oh my gosh, man. It's just all the Stitch Fix newsletters Unknown Speaker stylish, Speaker 2 he opens all of them. He opens every 100% open rate. Speaker 1 So he he they leak all of his emails. And all these companies that have had meetings scheduled with him are like oh, man, maybe not then actually this seems like you're not very Speaker 2 good at this here. But was the was the identities that he said were anonymous. Were those legitimate? Speaker 1 No. Yeah, they they in their video they posted the list of the people that he said they were in there like that's not not a single one of them is us. And also there is no hierarchy we have no yeah, that's none of this. None of these. You didn't get us. You didn't get a single one of us lol and they said there's not a laugh out Unknown Speaker loud. It's to Speaker 1 a point. Yeah. Yeah. And so they And they said, there's no hierarchy and anonymous. Like if he outlined this flowchart of leadership, he's like, we don't have a leadership hierarchy. We're just a community of hackers. That's just like, someone's like, hey, there's the thing I want to do. And everyone's like, cool. Let's hack him. Unknown Speaker Back. Yeah, dude. Unknown Speaker And obviously, this was also Speaker 2 the era of time where like, hackers were like, the coolest character in every movie. Speaker 1 Yeah, they had the hoodie. Yeah, yeah, the vigilante ism thing. Yeah, Speaker 2 you did a little bit of a hacker thing. For kids Speaker 1 that are on Patreon. Yeah. Put that on our Patreon, for sure. And then kids got scared. Yeah, we had to change it and change the pitch of the voice. Yeah. Because it was Speaker 2 like Christmas has been it was really bad. Tim was like kids are loved. Speaker 1 The kids did love her. She did love it. I mean, that the ones that were scared. Unknown Speaker They loved it. I mean, most of them. Yeah. Some of them love some nerd 10 of my freakin little torps. Speaker 1 Yeah, the kids who liked it actually weren't an anonymous. And so they were like, Speaker 2 hey, my youth group didn't have a hierarchy, though. All right. No hierarchy. So Speaker 1 obviously, this was detrimental for Aaron. Sure, all of his information was leaked. And then his business wasn't going to work anymore. Because now everyone knows he's bad at security. And also didn't do what He said He was going to do, like didn't actually identify anyone. And then everybody started to realize too, oh, your methodology was just did they sign off here? And did they sign on here? Yeah, it's like that. That's the dental like you have, there's no real good reason to link those like, sure. Maybe if you have millions of times, but it's like, you got to, I got to substantiate that. Probably more than just that link to be like, That guy's hacking people as a big claim, right? He's not hacking anybody? Yeah, he's just yeah, he's just getting on Facebook. So I learned a lot of how Unknown Speaker does one hack Unknown Speaker I mean, there's a lot of ways that I can let's do alright. Unknown Speaker Pack my grandma's house. Speaker 1 But anyway, so HP, Gary ended up getting sold. They sold the company for pennies on the dollar, because they didn't never did anything. Except for Speaker 2 if you buy space to medium for the right price. But the wrong price. I'll sell it to you Unknown Speaker at the wrong price, but you got Unknown Speaker to got it you got it really sucks. I'm taking a huge loss. Speaker 1 But this was an important lesson to anybody who decided they wanted to take on anonymous that you got to get to because we don't know anything. Other than that. No, we don't. I could do an episode on I can do some research and do a full episode honest on anonymous, but this was Unknown Speaker one of their more do one on a mom and Speaker 1 a mom and then and see him into money. Yeah, so they figured out some stuff about Aaron they hacked AWS accounts and destroyed his business. Speaker 2 Can you do me a favor? Go ahead and put up a picture of Aaron bar on the screen because I just found a picture of him. And he looks like he would get taken advantage of by a group on the discord you know, saying like he if you had to guess a man this man. This man plays World of Warcraft and gets owned by a chat. He Speaker 1 had a good system didn't they? Don't you think? Speaker 2 He looks Yeah, he is. Yeah. exact picture I was looking up to Yeah, he Unknown Speaker was very good at it. So Speaker 2 this is a recently divorced man to the church directory. You know, saying like that. You see like, the logo was smaller there where he's just like, he's like I'm in the single's ministry. Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, he's volunteering in the right area that Speaker 2 you know Yeah, cuz that's a smaller that's not his idol. is one of the Yeah, one of his eyes ain't bigger than the other one. Speaker 1 Yeah, he's doing that on purpose. He's Yeah. Yeah, so they got him they got him they're still out there they're still doing their thing. Nobody's tracked them down and they ruin this guy's life so well his Unknown Speaker grandma lives two to three Speaker 1 don't hit don't fall off yet. I got something else important to say You idiot. No, I do have something important to say what here's the thing Unknown Speaker you were engaged in the episode voice Speaker 1 we Gary was getting this. He Gary had a decent idea. But targeting Anonymous was not the way to go. Because Anonymous is sophisticated. Anonymous is not the kind of group where people that are a part of anonymous go like anonymous on Facebook. Yeah, like they're smarter than you can't be Speaker 2 a long john Silver's person and attacker Red Lobster person can do that. Speaker 1 Here's the thing though, if he would have attacked attacks on less sophisticated Did hackers this strategy might have worked for him? And he might have had a business? Yeah. So he shot went way too big. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so I want to I wanted to take a second to highlight someone that he probably should have targeted. Okay, but that'll be in next week's episode Speaker 1 things other than last night is a production of space Tim medium produced by Christian Taylor audio by ours Garnett video by Connor Betts, our graphics and our logo by Caleb Goldberg and our social media is run by Caleb Walker. Our hosts are Jeremiah and Tim stone. Follow us on your favorite social media platform at Taillon podcast is Ti LL and podcast. Remember to tell all your friends about us and we'll see you next Tuesday for another episode of things I learned last night. Transcribed by https://otter.ai


Welcome to this intriguing blog post that uncovers the captivating story of Aaron Barr and HBGary. It provides a deeper understanding of the events that unfolded and the confrontation with the notorious hacking collective Anonymous. Brace yourself for an exhilarating journey into cybersecurity and its unforeseen consequences.

Who is Aaron Barr?

Aaron Barr, a distinguished cybersecurity expert, significantly contributed to the industry. With his extensive expertise and background, he played a pivotal role at HBGary. He founded the company hoping to become a renowned organization specializing in cybersecurity services. In addition, Barr’s innovative mindset led him to develop cutting-edge software solutions, pushing the boundaries of online security.

HBGary: The Company

HBGary, a prominent player in the cybersecurity landscape, catered to a diverse clientele, ranging from government agencies to private organizations. With its comprehensive services, including network security, digital forensics, and incident response, HBGary stood as a formidable force in protecting sensitive information. However, the company found itself embroiled in controversy due to the development of its “persona management” software. This software aimed to create and manage online personas for intelligence-gathering purposes, raising ethical concerns and attracting scrutiny.

In an effort to grow the company’s reputation, Barr publically targeted the hacker group Anonymous. He believed he had identified a hierarchy within the organization and the names of many members. Barr exposed these individuals during a keynote speech at a cyber security conference while representing HBGary. Unfortunately, Barr was wrong about everything; to make matters worse, he made enemies at Anonymous.

The Anonymous Attack

Anonymous, a notorious hacking collective known for its decentralized structure, targeted HBGary due to perceived grievances. As a result, Aaron Barr soon found himself thrust into the spotlight as Anonymous focused on exposing and undermining the company’s operations. The confrontation with Anonymous began a tumultuous series of events, with Barr personally becoming a target. This uncovered sensitive documents, leading to significant reputational damage for both HBGary and Barr.

Fallout and Consequences

The Anonymous attack had severe repercussions for HBGary and Aaron Barr. Legal battles and financial hardships struck the company’s core, causing significant disruption to its operations and standing in the industry. The incident also affected Barr’s professional reputation, leading to personal and career challenges. The confrontation with Anonymous was a cautionary tale, highlighting the vulnerability of even the most advanced cybersecurity systems.

Lessons Learned

The incident was pivotal for the cybersecurity industry, prompting organizations to reevaluate their security measures and prioritize resilience against emerging threats. It underscored the importance of robust security practices, such as multi-factor authentication, encrypted communications, and proactive threat intelligence. Furthermore, the incident shed light on the significance of individual responsibility for online security and privacy. Finally, it reminded users to exercise caution while sharing personal information and to remain vigilant against phishing attempts and social engineering tactics.

Conclusion

The story of Aaron Barr and HBGary takes us on a captivating journey through the realm of cybersecurity, unraveling the clash with Anonymous and its aftermath. It leaves us with lasting lessons about the importance of ethical practices, resilient security measures, and personal online safety. For further exploration of this gripping incident, refer to the resources below.


Things I Learned Last Night is an educational comedy podcast where best friends Jaron Myers and Tim Stone talk about random topics and have fun all along the way. If you like learning and laughing a lot while you do, you’ll love TILLN. Watch or listen to this episode right now!

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Sources

HBGary – Wikipedia


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