'Don't spy on Verizon chair' - warned HP spooks
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Beware the Babbio The executives willing to testify about their roles in the HP spy scandal have claimed a blissful ignorance around the legal ins and outs of obtaining phone records. Their defense has hinged on the idea that they were assured by hired investigators that any phone snooping was legal and that they did not become really concerned about how phone records were obtained until learning of the euphemism "pretexting." Even after learning about pretexting, it took executives weeks to comprehend in full the fraud behind the practice.â¦
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman Patricia Dunn is under scrutiny from business and ethics experts after she oversaw an invasive and possibly illegal effort to snoop into the home phone calls of fellow HP board members.
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(InfoWorld) - Legislation that would allow the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to seek civil penalties against businesses that obtain personal data under false pretenses may soon get a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. The full House could vote on Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act as soon as late Friday or Saturday, Representative Joe Barton, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Friday. Barton, a Texas Republican, asked the House leadership to move forward with the bill afterÂ lawmakers ripped into Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) officials ThursdayÂ for allowing the practice during an investigation into board leaks. HP President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd and former HP Chairwoman Patricia Dunn both testified Thursday that they did not know the details of how the leak investigation was conducted. The pretexting legislation has been stalled since the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved it in March. The bill would allow the FTC to seek civil penalties against so-called pretexters, those who masquerade as a customer to gain access to phone records or other personal information. Representatives of five mobile phone service carriers raised no objections to the bill during Friday's hearing. Lawmakers questioned if more businesses than HP have used pretexting or other questionable investigatory methods. "How do we, and how does corporate America, break this ethos that, if someone thinks that illegal or unethical activity ... is acceptable, everybody else in a corporation goes along with it?" said Representative Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat. DeGette will explore ways to add new requirements to the Sarbanes-Oxley financial reporting law, she said. Christopher Bryon, a columnist for the New York Post, told lawmakers Friday that he was a victim of pretexting four years ago, long before the HP investigation came to light. A facial recognition software company hired a pretexter to gain access to his sources after he wrote a column about the company, Bryon said. Pretexting appears to be a widespread practice among U.S. businesses, Bryon said. "This is not something I wanted my family to grow up with ... wondering if your mail is being read, if your phone is tapped, if there's a bug in your bedroom," he said. The FTC has filed five lawsuits against alleged pretexters, but the agency lacks the legal authority to seek civil damages, said Joel Winston, associate director of privacy and identity protection at the FTC. The FTC sought to recover pretexting-related profits in those cases, but additional civil penalties would give the agency an additional tool to use against identity thieves, he said. A second pretexting bill, the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act, has passed the House, but the measure is hung up in the Senate over disagreements over the best approach. The House bill would make pretexting a crime, with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Congress is scheduled to adjourn by early next week until after the Nov. 7 general election. Congress may come back into session late in the year to address unfinished business.
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(InfoWorld) - A U.S. government panel has asked a corporate ethics lawyer from Hewlett-Packard (HP) to testify in its Sept. 28 hearing onÂ the company's use of "pretexting"Â to spy on journalists, board members and other employees. The investigative unit of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce CommitteeÂ said Wednesday that it has asked HP Senior Counsel Kevin Hunsaker and Fred Adler, a company computer security investigator, to join a growing list of witnesses. The subcommittee had also previously requested testimony from outgoing HP Chairman Patricia Dunn, HP General Counsel Ann Baskins, HP Global Security Manager Anthony Gentilucci, outside attorney Larry Sonsini as well as outside investigators. The practice of "pretexting" usually involves pretending to be a person, in order to obtain that person's personal information. An HP spokesman declined to comment. Up until now, Dunn has insisted she merely initiated the probe of boardroom leaks, and was ignorant of specific techniques used by investigators. "Unfortunately, the investigation, which was conducted with third parties, included certain inappropriate techniques. These went beyond what we understood them to be, and I apologize that they were employed," Dunn said in a recent statement. ButÂ e-mail correspondence examined by newspapersÂ including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times indicates that top HP officials solicited Dunn's opinion and questioned investigation techniques throughout the course of the leak probe. As early as Aug. 6, 2005, HP's Gentilucci asked for Dunn's advice about using "internal and external sources" to gather intelligence on "interested parties," according to company e-mail seen by The Wall Street Journal. Gentilucci offered to brief HP management on more details of "Project Kona" in a proposed meeting on Aug. 31. It is still unknown if that meeting took place, but Dunn replied to the e-mail, promising to respond. By Jan. 28, 2006, e-mail from Hunsaker to Adler shows that HP's own lawyers were closely questioning investigation techniques, The Wall Street Journal reports. Asked whether HP could legally spy on board members' cell-phone text messages, Adler replied: "Even if we could legally obtain the records, which we can't unless we pay the bill or get consent, I would highly suspect text-messaging records are not kept due to volume and expense." It is unclear if HP obtained text messages. But in an April 28 e-mail to Gentilucci and an outside investigator, Ron DeLia of Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc., in Boston, Hunsaker said he was writing at General Counsel Baskins' request to confirm the details of how the investigation team obtained phone records, The Wall Street Journal reports. In the e-mail, Hunsaker described how investigators were making "pretext calls." Hunsaker also said in the e-mail that his legal research confirmed that pretexting is legal. However, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has said that using fraudulent means to obtain personal information is not legal in the state. Lockyer has said he has evidence to charge people outside and inside HP. House investigators have also asked for testimony from DeLia and private investigator Joe Depante, owner of Action Research Group, which was reportedly hired by HP to help in the investigation. Dunn agreed on Sept. 12 to resign her own position, and will be replaced in January by current chief executive Mark Hurd. Â
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U.S. lawmakers on Thursday plan to   shine a spotlight on Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HPQ.N snooping   into the telephone records of some board members and   journalists, a practice that Congress may soon ban.
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Not Dunn arguing Patricia Dunn, the recently ex-chairman of HP, is to appear before a Congressional committee later today to defend her actions in spying on board members and journalists.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Although Hewlett-Packard's spying scandal has led to the resignation of four high-ranking officials and evoked comparisons in Congress to Watergate and fraud at Enron, it isn't likely to impede the company's long-term ability to compete, analysts and investors said. So far, these groups said, there has been scant evidence linking Mark Hurd to the legally questionable practice of pretexting, in which investigators probing news leaks impersonated board members and journalists in order to obtain their phone records. So long as Hurd is not shown to have approved or participated in those activities, HP is likely to emerge with its viability intact. "The problem has obviously been recognized and is being rectified, and with time the business will build back to normal," said Alex Vallecillo, a portfolio manager who follows technology stocks at Allegiant Asset Management. "We're all big boys and girls, and we understand what goes on in the corporate boardroom has no effect on the ability of [HP's] products and services to deliver value." Indeed, HP's shares gained 1.6 percent on Thursday, the same day Patricia Dunn, who was forced to resign as the company's chairman last week, was grilled before a hearing convened by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Ten people involved with the investigation asserted their Fifth Amendment rights in declining to answer representatives' questions. Since Sept. 5, the day before the news of the scandal broke, HP shares have fallen 1.1 percent, compared with a 2.9 percent gain for the Nasdaq composite index and a 2.1 percent gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Although the negative attention has been a distraction for HP, "that's a very short-term situation, which I expect to pass soon," said Sunil Reddy, senior portfolio manager at Fifth Third Asset Management. "All the cards are on the table right now; I'd be very surprised if anything new comes out." Analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group, attending an event in New York where HP was showing off new PCs ahead of the Christmas shopping season, agreed. The corporate buyers he's talked to aren't likely to choose HP competitors as a result of the scandal, and he said he expected non-business customers to feel the same way. "It relates to behavior of folks the average consumer doesn't relate with and probably doesn't understand." That said, HP's investigative techniques have become the butt of plenty of jokes, Enderle said, in which business customers tell HP sales staff: "We're probably going to send this out to bid, but you probably already know that because you've been looking at my phone records."
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The Hewlett-Packard scandal revealed much about corporate spying. But boardrooms are still defining the ethical boundaries.
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Inky upside to murky mess The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) doesn't want to be left out of the Big Dig into HP's spy operations. The agency has broadened its probe of the company, asking for records tied to the resignation of board member Tom Perkins and documents related to HP's already infamous mole hunt.â¦
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SAN FRANCISCO - In snooping on a reporter to pinpoint internal news leaks, Hewlett-Packard used high-tech tools common to spammers, phishers, retailers, suspicious employers and investigators. Those tools, including phishing-style e-mail and tracing software, underscore the growing use of electronic surveillance to monitor consumers' every digital move, computer-security experts say.
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Verizon Wireless, the nation&#39;s largest wireless carrier, will not participate in a national 411 wireless phone database, chief executive Dennis Strigl told a US Senate committee on Tuesday.
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Verizon Wireless VZ.N sued 20   unnamed data brokers for fraudulently obtaining private   telephone records belonging to Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N   board members and journalists as part of an HP investigation   into boardroom leaks.
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Dunn-snooping The HP board of directors is meeting again later today to decide the fate of chairman Patricia Dunn.â¦
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On the heels of a similarÂ suit filed Thursday by Verizon Wireless Inc., Cingular Wireless LLC on Friday suedÂ private investigators used by Hewlett-Packard Co. to obtain phone records of a CNET News.com journalist.
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Or an investigative technique - oh, wait HP has entered the denial phase in its legal battle with former executive Karl Kamb. The company this week denied claims made by Kamb that it used pre-texting techniques during an internal investigation into the executive's side business selling flat panel TVs. Moreover, HP whacked back at Kamb, saying pre-texting was not a way of life at the company.â¦
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A congressional committee looking at corporate spying practices at Hewlett-Packard Co. already has found links between other large companies and researchers who used sketchy and possibly illegal investigation methods.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Hewlett-Packard Co.'s early efforts to plug a boardroom leak targeted the phone records of then-chief executive Carly Fiorina, according to a source familiar with one of the investigations looming over the computer maker.