From the article:

  "Instead, he believes that Anonymous has "decided to continue their antics. They're in it for the laughs… this is a real funny game for them." Not content with the damage they have inflicted, they "harass a company that's trying to get back to work." Each time a new story about the company appears in the press, Butterworth said that these attacks spike again."

If the press is bad for HBGary why do they participate in it? A no comment would have been sufficient. I think HB Gary is participating in the press to incite attacks so they can present themselves as victims, collect evidence, have someone charged, and declare victory. Seriously, a sheet of paper written in sharpie. They're expecting me to believe that the RSA holds a security conference with out badges, with out video monitoring and that some anon in a Guy Fawkes mask walks up to the table and places a threatening did it for the LULZ paper on their booth with no one noticing. Maybe, V for Vendetta is a real movie and such a person really exists who can easily pass through intelligence services and evade video monitoring. If I was HB Gary I'd have extensive surveillance on the booth to catch just such a thing. I'll use the Aaron Barr method of finding anons and assume the anon who placed the paper is employed by HB Gary. This from a company whose services are retained for their ability to plant false documents. The sign should read 'We got laughed out of the security conference for using weak passwords, storing them weakly, and reusing passwords in addition to being vulnerable to basic SQL injection.'

In my opinion, officers of HBGary Federal were engaged in stalking people online and selling private information about individuals for commercial purposes, as well as engaged in defaming these individuals with false information to the FBI. Given the demographic of anonymous it's quite likely that some of these individuals were children. I'm not sure if this is illegal in the US, but if they collected and prepared to sell personal information without consent about Canadian citizens they'd likely be in violation of Federal Law. (PIPEDA)

Also, regarding the millions of dollars in damages, these claims would be impossible to verify with a private company. Public companies on the other hand are required to file damages to the company both tangible and intangible. In a lot of hacking cases you'll see millions of dollars claimed, but if you look at the 10-Qs (SEC Required docs) you'll see no such filing. If you want a case to look at in particular for this, look at what happened to Kevin Mitnick. Why is it ok for HBGary to take money to compromise computers, but when Anonymous engaged in expression of speech they are targetted by federal investigators?

This is a company that used intelligence assets against pro-union websites. My personal feelings regarding unions aside, this is attempting to violate the rights of individuals to peaceably assemble. Even if it isn't illegal per se, it's highly unethical.

If HB Gary only engaged in ethical business practices there would be little damage from the disclosure of the emails. The damage results from the conspiracy to commit activities that are likely criminal.

A better question to ask is given the emails why Federal charges have not been laid against HBGary?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Relations_Act