HP CEO: Pretexting probe a 'rogue'
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In an advance copy of his Congressional testimony released by a House Subcommittee on Wednesday, Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Hurd blamed the scandal that has besieged his company on "a rogue investigation" that got out of hand.
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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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HP CEO Mark Hurd plans to answer questions from reporters on Friday regarding the ongoing HP controversy involving spying on journalists, board members and employees.
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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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A Georgia private eye involved in the Hewlett-Packard pretexting brouhaha is the target of a suit by Cingular. The company wants him to pay for obtaining customer info under false pretenses.
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Hewlett-Packard Co.  Chief Executive Mark Hurd may have known as early as in July 2005 the company was looking into private phone records as part of its leak investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Monday.
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SEC and California want answers HP today divulged some of the grimy details behind its boardroom mole hunting operation.â¦
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As the HP press leak scandal widens, e-mails obtained by the Washington Post indicate CEO Mark Hurd approved some of the tactics used. This included tracking of a reporter's e-mails via a Trojan horse.
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Hewlett-Packard Co.  Chief  Executive Mark Hurd told lawmakers on Thursday there were no  excuses for a probe of boardroom leaks that led investigators  to obtain private telephone records deceptively.
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard board members and journalists were under physical surveillance by investigators trying to find out who was providing information to reporters, and private investigators tried to put tracking software on a journalist's computer to keep tabs on e-mail, according to a New York Times report. Patricia Dunn, HP's chairman, the company's general counsel and a staff attorney oversaw the internalÂ investigation of news leaks, the Times reported, citing anonymous sources who have been briefed on HP's findings so far regarding the secret investigation. It isn't clear how much involvement in the investigation there was by Dunn and others at HP, the Times reported Monday. HP announced last week that Dunn willÂ step aside as chairmanÂ in January, although she will remain as a director. Two others also have resigned from the board in the wake of the scandal. Over the weekend, HP identified Michael Moeller, director of corporate media relations, as one of two HP employees who was targeted in the internal investigation. "Investigators' suspicions were misdirected and unfounded," Robert Sherbin, HP's vice president for external communications was quoted as telling the Times on Sunday. The internal investigation reportedly was conducted in two stages, with the first from January 2005 to August of that year, which came up with nothing to go on, and then a second phase beginning in January 2006 after the technology news site of CNET NetworksÂ posted an article about an HP senior management meeting held that month. The board first clamored for an investigation into leaks of information to journalists in January 2005 following an article in The Wall Street Journal that spoke of board discussions regarding management reorganization and changes in the responsibilities to be handled by Carly Fiorina, who was then chief executive officer and chairman. She was ousted by the board in February 2005. Within days of that board action, The New York Times published a detailed account of a directors' meeting that was crucial to her ouster. Reporters from the Times, the Journal, CNET and Business Week have been informed by the California attorney general's office that HP investigated them. California and federal authorities are investigating HP's conduct and the California attorney general has said that charges are likely. HP has admitted that its the private investigative firm it hired used "pretexting," with investigators pretending to be journalists in order to obtain their personal telephone records. Even after a summary of the internal investigation was presented to leaders at HP, in Palo Alto, California, those in charge were unaware that possibly illegal methods had been used to obtain information, the Times reported. In May, the investigation's findings were relayed to the board of directors, including the allegation that its longest-running member, George Keyworth, was the source of the leaks to journalists. He refused to resign, but Vice Chairman Thomas Perkins, an influential and important Silicon Valley venture capitalist, was incensed over the probe and quit the board. He then turned his attention to pressuring Dunn to resign. His surprising departure was announced in a mildly worded HP statement that offered no clue as to the fractious nature of what had transpired, details of which began to emerge in news accounts earlier this month.
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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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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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By James S. Granelli and Charles Piller  The boardroom intrigue at Hewlett Packard Co. intensified Tuesday as California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said he has "enough evidence to indict" people inside the Silicon Valley icon for snooping confidential phone records.
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By Damon Darlin and Matt Richtel  John Markoff contributed reporting.  *  Pressure is mounting on the Hewlett-Packard chief executive, Mark Hurd, to explain what appears to have been a greater role in the company's spying operation than was initially indicated.
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(InfoWorld) - Two U.S. Congressmen have asked Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd to explain why he sold US$1.37 million worth of HP stock just before theÂ company's spying scandal became public. Congressmen John Dingell and Mark Stupak, both Michigan Democrats, sent a letter to Hurd Wednesday requesting an explanation and asking for a response by Dec. 21. "We look forward to responding to the committee's inquiry," said HP spokeswoman Emma Wischhusen. Both congressmen are ranking members of the investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which in September held hearings on the HP pretexting scandal. In his testimony, Hurd apologized for the investigation HP undertook in which private investigators used false pretenses, called pretexting, to gain access to the phone records of people being investigated to trace leaks of board deliberations to the media. In their letter, Dingell and Stupak note that Hurd sold $1.37 million in stock options on Aug. 25, the same day Hurd was briefed by attorneys for Wilson Sonsini, one of HP's outside law firms, about the pretexting investigation and possible legal liability for the company over it. The scandal became public Sept. 6 when HP filed a notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledging that director Thomas Perkins resigned over the way the leak investigation was conducted. "The August 25 transaction does not appear to be part of any prescheduled program," the congressmen wrote in their letter to Hurd. "Please explain the reason for this transaction." Questions about the timing of HP executives' stock trades around the same time are also the subject of aÂ shareholder lawsuit against the technology company. The suit, filed Nov. 29 in Santa Clara County Superior Court in California, accuses Hurd and seven other HP executives of selling a total $41.3 million worth of shares between Aug. 21 and Sept. 6 based on insider information that the pretexting scandal was about to become publicly known. HP issued a statement at the time the lawsuit was filed calling it "baseless." As it is, HP's stock price wasn't adversely affected by the scandal as investors regarded it as unrelated to the company's operations. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Ousted Hewlett-Packard chairwoman Patricia Dunn is expected to be indicted Wednesday in California on charges related toÂ the spying scandal that has hit the company, the New York Times reports. To be indicted along with Dunn are Kevin Hunsaker, a former senior lawyer at HP; Ronald L. DeLia, a Boston-area private detective; Joseph DePante, owner of Action Research Group, a Melbourne, Florida, information broker; and Bryan Wagner, a Littleton, Colorado, man who is said to have obtained private phone records while working for DePante, the Times reported. The charges are expected to come from California Attorney General Bill Lockeyer,Â whose office has been investigating reportsÂ that HP hired private detectives and may have used illegal methods to track the source of news leaks from the board of directors. The charges are expected to include using false or fraudulent pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility, unauthorized access to computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit each of those crimes, the Times reported. All of the charges are felonies. The private investigators hired by HP allegedly used "pretexting," pretending to be journalists from a number of various publications to obtain their telephone records in an attempt to find out who from the board provided information to the reporters.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N said   on Monday it has been contacted by U.S. federal prosecutors   seeking information about the company's investigation into   boardroom leaks to the press.