There is news in the last month that local business HB Gary (whose slogan is “Detecting Tomorrow’s Malware Today”) is in the hot seat for their e mails and contracts with the US Chamber Of commerce; those contracts and e mails are now considered evidence of a federal criminal conspiracy by some respected observers. (See interviews with Richard Clarke, former cyber security czar for the Bush administration who had served in the National Security Council under three presidents, about his views that the US Chamber was plotting “with a group of military contractors to hack into progressive groups.” here. The military contractors he was talking about includes local Sacramento business HB Gary. Here.
The scandal is that the Chamber had agreements with these companies to hack into the computer and social networking systems of certain progressive groups that oppose some of the Chamber’s policies. The companies make a poretty good dollar existing also on US Military contracts. Now members of Congress have issued subpoenas to the Defense Department and the NSA to examine their own contracts with these companies, including local HB Gary.
As for what HB Gary was alleged to have done, Mr. Clark stated ” I think it’s a violation of 10USC. I think it’s a felony, and I think they should go to jail. You call them a large trade association, I call them a large political action group that took foreign money in the last election. But be that as it may, if you in the United States, if any American citizen anywhere in the world, because this is an extraterritorial law, so don’t think you can go to Bermuda and do it, if any American citizen anywhere in the world engages in unauthorized penetration, or identity theft, accessing a number through identity theft purposes, that’s a felony and if the Chamber of Commerce wants to try that, that’s fine with me because the FBI will be on their doorstep in a matter of hours.”
Will grand jury subpoenas follow soon for a possible investigation locally in Sacramento or Washington DC, the headquarters for the Chamber?
