King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association et al v. J. Kenneth Blackwell et al

Filing 111

RESPONSE to Motion re 110 MOTION for Status Conference filed by Plaintiffs Willis Brown, Miles Curtiss, Paul Gregory, King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association, League of Young Voters/Columbus, Ohio Voter Rights Alliance for Democracy, Matthew Segal & Harvey Wasserman. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Attachment 1 Wash Post, # 2 Exhibit Attachment 2 NYT) (Arnebeck, Clifford) Modified on 2/28/2011 to add doc link (kk2)

Attachment 2
February 11, 2011
Hackers Reveal Offers to Spy on Corporate Rivals
By ERIC LIPTON and CHARLIE SAVAGE
Correction Appended

WASHINGTON — A fight between a group of pro-WikiLeaks hackers and a California-based
Internet security business has opened a window onto the secretive world of private companies
that offer to help corporations investigate and discredit their critics.
This week, hackers said they had penetrated the computers of HBGary Federal, a security
company that sells investigative services to corporations, and posted tens of thousands of what
appear to be its internal company e-mails on the Internet.
The documents appear to include pitches for unseemly ways to undermine adversaries of Bank of
America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, like doing background research on their critics and
then distributing fake documents to embarrass them.
The bank and the chamber do not appear to have directly solicited the spylike services of
HBGary Federal. Rather, HBGary Federal offered to do the work for Hunton & Williams, a
corporate law firm that has represented them.
A Hunton & Williams spokesman did not comment. But spokesmen for Bank of America and the
chamber said Friday that they had not known about the presentations and that HBGary Federal
was never hired on their behalf. A chamber spokesman characterized the proposal as “abhorrent.”
Since the hacked e-mails appeared on a file-sharing network several days ago, a broad range of
bloggers and journalists have been scouring them and discussing highlights on the Internet. The
New York Times also obtained a copy of the archive.
One document that has received particular attention is a PowerPoint presentation that said a trio
of data-related companies — HBGary Federal, Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies
— could help attack WikiLeaks, which is rumored to be preparing to release internal e-mails
from Bank of America.
One idea was to submit fake documents covertly to WikiLeaks, and then expose them as
forgeries to discredit the group. It also suggested pressuring WikiLeaks’ supporters — notably
Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com — by threatening their careers.
“Without the support of people like Glenn, WikiLeaks would fold,” the presentation said.
Another set of documents proposed similar ways to embarrass adversaries of the Chamber of
Commerce for an initial fee of $200,000 and $2 million later.

The e-mails include what appears to be an exchange on Nov. 9, 2010, between Aaron Barr,
HBGary Federal’s chief executive, and John W. Woods, a Hunton & Williams partner who
focuses on corporate investigations. Mr. Barr recounted biographical tidbits about the family of a
one-time employee of a union-backed group that had challenged the chamber’s opposition to
Obama administration initiatives like health care legislation.
“They go to a Jewish church in DC,” Mr. Barr apparently wrote. “They have 2 kids, son and
daughter.”
A week later, Mr. Barr submitted a detailed plan to Hunton & Williams for an extensive
investigation into U.S. Chamber Watch and other critics of the chamber, including the possible
creation of “in-depth target dossiers” and the identification of vulnerabilities in their computer
networks that might be exploited.
Another PowerPoint presentation prepared for Hunton & Williams said the research that HBGary
Federal and its partners could do for the law firm on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce would
“mitigate effect of adversarial groups” like U.S. Chamber Watch. The presentation discussed the
alleged criminal record of one leader of an antichamber group, and said the goal of its research
would be to “discredit, confuse, shame, combat, infiltrate, fracture” the antichamber
organizations.
HBGary acknowledged Tuesday in a statement that it had been the victim of a “criminal
cyberattack,” but suggested that documents placed in the public domain might be “falsified.”
The other two businesses referred to in the apparent proposals as planned partners in the
corporate investigations put out statements that distanced themselves from HBGary Federal but
did not say the documents were fake.
The co-founders of Berico, Guy Filippelli and Nick Hallam, confirmed that Berico had been
“asked to develop a proposal to support a law firm” that was helping companies “analyze internal
information security and public relations challenges,” but said their proposal had been limited to
“analyzing publicly available information.” They called efforts to target people “reprehensible”
and said they were breaking all ties to HBGary Federal, a move that Palantir executives also said
they were making.
The episode traces back to a dispute in December, when corporations including MasterCard, Visa
and PayPal severed ties to WikiLeaks, temporarily cutting off its ability to accept donations.
WikiLeaks had just begun releasing leaked State Department cables in conjunction with a
consortium of news organizations, including The New York Times.
Calling the companies’ severing of such ties an affront to Internet freedom, a loose-knit group of
computer users named Anonymous coordinated attacks on the Web sites of such companies. Mr.
Barr apparently began trying to uncover the identities of those involved with Anonymous. But
after he boasted of his efforts in a newspaper article, hackers attacked his company’s Web site
and made public the e-mails.

Jonathan E. Turner, who runs a Tennessee-based business that gathers intelligence for corporate
clients, said that companies nationwide relied on investigators to gather potentially damaging
information on possible business partners or rivals. “Information is power,” said Mr. Turner,
former chairman of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
He estimated that the “competitive intelligence” industry had 9,700 companies offering these
services, with an annual market of more than $2 billion, but said there were limits to what tactics
should be used.
Bank of America and the Chamber of Commerce distanced themselves on Friday from any effort
to embarrass or collect disparaging information about their critics. “We have not engaged in, nor
do we have any plans to engage in, the practices discussed in this alleged presentation by
HBGary,” said Lawrence DiRita, a Bank of America spokesman.
Tom Collamore, a chamber spokesman, said, “The leaked e-mails appear to show that HBGary
Federal was willing to propose questionable actions in an attempt to drum up business, but the
chamber was not aware of these proposals until HBGary’s e-mails leaked.”
Correction: February 12, 2011

HB Gary Federal and HB Gary are two related companies that share some of the same owners
and have shared the same offices as their California headquarters. But they are distinct entities.
An earlier version of the story was not clear on this distinction