HP phone log black op tapped nine reporters
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Hurd silent on growing scandal HP's spy fiasco went from bad to catastrophic yesterday, as the company admitted to having tapped the phone logs of nine reporters.â¦
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Pretexting now part of the HP Way Put the cheery comeback stories on hold. HP has a boardroom scandal that deserves some attention.â¦
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By RACHEL KONRAD Associated Press  Company-hired investigators sought the source of a leak.   SAN FRANCISCO -- Investigators for Hewlett-Packard Co.
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By MATT SLAGLE   Associated Press writer  HOUSTON -- Hewlett-Packard Co.
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(InfoWorld) - An attorney hired by Hewlett-Packard to investigate the conduct of HP and outside investigators has provided new details of his firm's investigation ofÂ news leaks from the HP board. Mike Holston, a partner in Morgan, Lewis & Bockius was hired Sept. 8 to conduct an independent investigation of the scandal and reports directly to HP Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd. Morgan Lewis has reviewed some of the approximately 1 million pages of documents it received from HP and outside investigators hired by HP to trace the news leaks. It determined that HP Board Chairman Patricia Dunn authorized two separate investigations: one to probe leaks in 2005 and a second in 2006. The Morgan Lewis probe found that HP hired in 2005 Security Outsourcing Services (SOS), of Needham, Massachusetts, a private security firm, to probe the first series of leaks. This is the first official confirmation that HP hired that firm, even though it had been identified in several recent news stories. Two months into SOS's probe, HP's Global Security division also joined the investigation. The investigation concluded in July 2005 without being able to identify the source of those leaks. When CNet NetworksÂ reported Jan 23, 2006, on the details of a private board meeting, HP launched a second investigation with the help of SOS and HP Global Security. Dunn, Hurd, HP's General Counsel Ann Baskins, and Jim Fairbaugh, chief of Global Security, approved the second investigation. Dunn and Baskins were kept up to date on the course of the investigation over the next three months, Holston said. "It is now clear that the investigation included tactics that ranged from the review of HPâs internal e-mails and instant messages, to the physical surveillance of an HP Board member and at least one journalist, to the "pretexting" of telephone call information of board members, HP employees, and journalists," he said, adding that SOS's legal counsel informed HP that SOS's investigative techniques were legal. The investigators presented a draft report to HP in March 2006 identifying the source of the board leaks and detailing some of their investigative methods, including pretexting, which is obtaining access to private phone records under false pretenses. HP sent a copy of the report to its outside legal counsel and the report was disclosed at a May 18 board meeting. In a separate HP filing Sept. 6 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company disclosed that director George Keyworth was the source. While he acknowledged his role, Keyworth refused to resign at that May board meeting. HeÂ eventually resignedÂ Sept. 12. Holston went on to say that Tony Gentilucci, another member of HP's Global Security division and a member of the investigative team, turned over the Social Security number of an HP employee to SOS. SOS then turned that and other Social Security numbers over to Action Research Group, another private investigative firm, which used the numbers to help gain unauthorized access to private phone records. This is also the first acknowledgement that Action Research, of Melbourne, Florida, was involved, although it had been identified in news reports. Disclosing personal employee information is a violation of HP policy, and could result in Mr. Gentilucci's dismissal, said a source inside the company who declined to be identified. Holston also disclosed that investigators attempted to send an e-mail to a CNet reporter from a fictitious disgruntled HP employee that contained a hidden attachment, called a "tracer," that would track who the reporter contacted about the tip so as to identify her sources. HP did not disclose the identity of the reporter Friday, but she was identified in a Sept. 21 Washington Post article as Dawn Kawamoto. But Holston said it could not be determined whether the tracer was ever activated. Hurd acknowledged in his remarks that heÂ approved the fake e-mail schemeÂ but said he did not know it involved use of the tracer. And although another scheme to send spies into the San Francisco offices of CNet and The Wall Street Journal posing as clerical or janitorial workers was considered, there was no indication it was ever carried out, Holston said.
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard has turned over thousands of documents to a U.S. House subcommittee investigating methods the company used to find out who was leaking company information to the media, a subcommittee spokesman said Monday. "The committee did receive thousands of pages of documents from HP. Staff investigators are reviewing them now," said Terry Lane of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. HP confirmed it responded to the subcommittee's request but didn't go beyond that. "We are complying with the House Subcommittee'sÂ request for informationÂ but are not releasing the details of what's being provided for the committee's inquiry," said HP spokesman Ryan Donovan. The inquiry springs from revelations that HP hired an outside investigative firm that used questionable tactics to find theÂ source of leaks from the HP boardÂ to news media in 2005 and 2006. HP, in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing Sept. 6, acknowledged that unnamed outside investigators used "pretexting," a form of subterfuge where investigators pose as someone else, to obtain personal phone records of people it was investigating. The committee is considering federal legislation to make pretexting illegal. The House panel, in a Sept. 11 letter to HP Board Chairman Patricia Dunn, asked HP to: Identify the outside investigative firms it hired; identify the people within HP who authorized, participated in or had knowledge of HP's investigation; provide copies of contracts between HP and any outside firms; disclose the identities of everyone whose phone records were procured, or were attempted to be procured; and provide other information. HP, of Palo Alto, California, has refused to identify the outside firms it hired, but various media reports have identified them as Security Outsourcing Services, of Needham, Massachusetts, and Action Research Group, of Melbourne, Florida. Although HP has claimed that its legal advisors told it that the pretexting was within the law, an HP security specialist reportedly questioned its legality earlier this year. Fred Adler, a computer-crimes specialist within HP's global security division, and a former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, notified his supervisors that acquiring people's phone records under false pretenses could be against the law, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The subcommittee has invited Dunn and HP General Counsel Ann Baskins to testify at a committee hearing Sept. 28 and a committee source told the Journal they would appear. HP's Donovan would not comment. Larry Sonsini of the Palo Alto law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati was also invited to testify but it's not known if he will appear. Ronald DeLia of Security Outsourcing Solutions, also invited, hasn't replied, but the Journal quoted a committee source as saying that if DeLia were to testify he said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to not testify to protect against self-incrimination.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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Verizon Wireless  sued 20  unnamed data brokers for fraudulently obtaining private  telephone records belonging to Hewlett-Packard Co.   board members and journalists as part of an HP investigation  into boardroom leaks.
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(110 sec.) An update on the major players in the Hewlett-Packard spying scandal.
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard obtained the telephone records of nine reporters as part of its internal probe of information leaks, the company confirmed Thursday. The company sent the list of the nine reporters to the Office of the Attorney General of the State of California, in response to the Attorney General's inquiries. "HP is dismayed that the phone records of journalists were accessed without their knowledge, and we are fully cooperating with the attorney general's investigation," said company spokesman Ryan Donovan. In an Aug. 31 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),Â HP admittedÂ that an outside investigator had used "pretexting," a technique in which an investigator may obtain information by disguising their identity. HP's internal investigation was sparked by what the company said were "multiple leaks of confidential HP information," including discussions by the board of directors, HP said in the SEC filing. At a May 18 board meeting, HP board members asked fellow director George A. Keyworth II to resign, as a source of those leaks. He declined, but Thomas J. Perkins did resign over a dispute with HP's Nonexecutive Chairman Patricia Dunn over the investigation's handling, the company said. The California Attorney General has asked HP for information about techniques used in the leak investigation, while the SEC is making inquiries into a filing HP made when Perkins resigned. HP's Donovan confirmed reports that among the journalists whose phone records were accessed were a reporter from The Wall Street Journal and a reporter from CNet Networks. He declined to name the other reporters. The Wall Street Journal and CNet published reports including leaked information from board meetings. The leaks to the Wall Street Journal included information about discussions leading up to the firing of Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina last year. The Attorney General's office declined to name the reporters on the list handed over by HP. (Additional reporting by Stephen Lawson in San Francisco.) Â
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Not so Agile Business Comment HP grows leakier by the hour: today's Pretexting Scandal episode, brought to you by an unnamed source of the NY Times reveals that the company "conducted feasibility studies on planting spies in news bureaus of [CNET and The Wall Street Journal] as part of an investigation of leaks from its board". Check out those janitors, before they check you out.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Several people connected to the Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) board scandal have been invited to testify at a U.S. House subcommittee hearing Sept. 28 on the issue ofÂ pretexting to get confidential phone records. Patricia Dunn, chairman of HP's board, and Ann Baskins, HP's general counsel, have been invited to testify at a hearing of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington, D.C. Also invited to testify is Larry Sonsini, lead outside counsel for HP, and Ronald DeLia, managing director of Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc., a Needham, Massachusetts, corporate security company identified as having been hired by HP to investigate who on the board leaked news of a confidential strategy session to the media. HP and outside firms it hired to conduct the investigation are facingÂ possible criminal charges in California for using pretexting to surreptitiously gain access to the personal phone records of HP directors and nine journalists. Dunn has agreed to resign as chairman come January as a result of her role in the investigation, but will remain on the board. Sonsini, chairman of the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, advised HP on the legality of its investigation of the leaks. The committee is considering federal legislation to outlaw pretexting in the U.S. and put other limits on the work of so-called data brokers who gather information for clients. Sometimes their means are duplicitous, such as impersonating an individual to gain unauthorized access to confidential records. HP is being investigated by the Attorneys General of California and Massachusetts, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's office for actions it took to investigate the board leaks that may have violated the law. Terry Lane, a spokesman for the House committee, said the witnesses have not been subpoenaed to testify but could not say what the committee might do if they declined the invitation. Although HP has said it is willing to cooperate on investigations into the pretexting case, spokesman Mike Moeller said the company would not comment specifically on whether Dunn and Baskins would accept the invitation to testify. Neither of the others responded to a request for comment. Â
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A satirical look at the pretexting scandal at HP.
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Documents offer new details of HP's leak hunt, including info Patricia Dunn shared with private investigators.
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The wireless carrier's lawsuit is aimed at those responsible for obtaining the phone records of a CNET News.com reporter in an HP probe.
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"Multiple reports of provocateurs setting trash fires in midtown," read one text message sent to 400-plus mobile phones this week through a service called Ruckus RNC 2004 Text Alerts.
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Revelations that HP supervised an extensive investigation of some of its directors, journalists and a few employees have blemished its reputation. The New York Times
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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.