Susannah: hey there, do you know anythign abt this? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/anonymous-marks-bahrain-anniversary-by-hacking-us-tear-gas-company/2012/02/14/gIQAilOVDR_blog.html me: yep Susannah: anything you can comment on? me: ask away Susannah: are attacks like this aimed at hampering the work of CSI or is it just a publicity stunt? me: in this case, e-mails and other materials were seized me: this sort of thing prompts the firms in question to rethink the utility of dealing with Bahrain, in this case me: even aside from what the mere fact of being targeted can do in terms of bringing unwanted attention to the firm's practices me: ... the damage done can sometimes be much greater depending on what's found in the e-mails me: HBGary, for instance, had 70,000 e-mails seized, and what was in those led to a CEO resignation and countless other problems me: in this case, a lot of other things are being done to cause confusion, distractions for the Bahrain intelligence services, who would otherwise be free to pursue the local activists me: meanwhile, a firm called Qorvis me: located in DC me: and which does "PR" for the Bahrain regime me: is also being targeted by less technical means in order to encourage them to break off the relationship me: but even if the attacks were just limited to DDOS or some such, it would still prompt coverage of the issue itself in Western media - in this case, the Bahrain regime's various crimes against its people Susannah: have you ever seen evidence of attacks like this actually leading to change? me: Tunisia is one of the best examples me: HBGary is probably the best me: it would be hard to summarize what's come out of that one hack me: you might talk to Maryam Al-Khawaja of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights me: regarding these attacks in particular Susannah: ok cool me: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/anonymous-marks-bahrain-anniversary-by-hacking-us-tear-gas-company/2012/02/14/gIQAilOVDR_blog.html