HBGary storms back after ridicule fades

For years, few people knew about HBGary Inc., a Sacramento tech firm working on the esoteric frontiers of cybersecurity.

Then a bizarre episode turned the 30-employee firm into a combination global laughingstock and villain.

A maker of software designed to thwart hackers, HBGary was itself victimized by hackers in February. The group called Anonymous stole thousands of HBGary's emails and gleefully posted them on the Internet. As if that weren't bad enough, the emails revealed a dirty-tricks scheme, cooked up by HBGary's sister company, to undermine foes of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.