Ex-HBGary Federal chief Aaron Barr is removed from Defcon security panel

SHAMED EXECUTIVE Aaron Barr is still feeling the effects of his treatment at the hands of Anonymous and for the second year running has found himself unwelcome at a security conference.

Last year the company Barr worked for, security firm HBGary Federal, was in the midst of an onslaught from Anonymous after it foolishly claimed to be able to identify its members. This opened up a can of lulz and after suffering attack after attack the company was forced to pull out of the RSA security conference. This year, in a twist of irony, it is HBGary that is preventing him from appearing.

According to security firm Kaspersky's Threat Post blog, Barr was due to appear on a panel at Defcon this year but was told, or rather encouraged, not to by lawyers working on behalf of HBGary Federal.

The panel, which was to be called "'Whoever Fights Monsters...' Aaron Barr, Anonymous and Ourselves", will no longer go ahead, according to Threat Post. This is perhaps a shame as it sounds like it would have been interesting to watch.

Offered up with a quote from Nietzsche - "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster" - the planned event is still showing on the Defcon timetable.

"Aaron Barr returns for the first time in what's sure to be a gritty and frank (and heated) panel. How can we conduct ourselves without losing ourselves? How far is too far - or not far enough?," reads the blurb.

"The Anonymous attacks and data spilled from both private- and public sector firms raise important questions that this panel will try to answer, among them: how to respond to chaotic actors like Anonymous and LulzSec, what the U.S. gains (and loses) by making 'APTs' (Advanced persistent threats) the new 'Commies' and cyber the forefront of the next Cold War and APTs the new commies."

Barr was behind plans at HBGary Federal to infiltrate Anonymous. We are starting to wonder when he will get the message and leave it alone. µ