Mass. Firm to Be Searched in HP Scandal
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By JORDAN ROBERTSON  SAN FRANCISCO - Investigators plan to search the Boston-area offices of a private investigation firm involved in the Hewlett-Packard Co. spying scandal, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Thursday.
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By Ross Kerber and Sacha Pfeiffer, The Boston Globe  Sep. 14--California officials investigating the corporate spying issues  at Hewlett-Packard Co.
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Mike Holston, who helped conduct the investigation into Hewlett-Packard's pretexting scandal, starts on Feb. 22.
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California officials investigating the corporate spying issues at Hewlett-Packard Co. are examining the role of a Massachusetts investigations firm, Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc., in the events leading to Tuesday's decision by H P chairwoman Patricia C. Dunn to step down, according to published reports.
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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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Here's a rundown of the agencies investigating HP's methods of tracking down a "leaker" on its board.
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The Justice Department has launched a probe into Hewlett-Packard's methods to uncover the source of press leaks, the company has disclosed. The state of California and the House Commerce Committee are also investigating, it said.
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Hewlett-Packard found itself under increased legal and political scrutiny over the use of private investigators to trace the source of news leaks in the board.
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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.
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Department of Justice launches query into methods Hewlett-Packard used to nab the source of media leaks.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Hewlett-Packard Co.'s chief ethics officer learned the company's detectives were relying on shady tactics to gather private phone records long before a boardroom battle over media leaks triggered criminal and congressional investigations .
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SAN FRANCISCO -- The probe into who knew what, and when, about spying at Hewlett-Packard Co. threatened to reach into the chief executive's office yesterday, rattling investors, who feared the world's largest technology company was sailing into a perfect storm.
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Spy in our state, will you? It's looking less and less likely that HP will be able to fend off all of the legal issues around its spy scandal on the third parties it hired to investigate employees, directors, reporters and reporters' relatives.â¦
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Still grappling with the fallout from a boardroom spying scandal, Hewlett-Packard Co. is now facing a Senate investigation into a stock option debacle that it inherited last year with its $4.9 billion acquisition of software maker Mercury Interactive Corp.
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(InfoWorld) - Like a good friend who has just gotten out of a terrible relationship, Hewlett-Packard seemed to be on the rebound and all the happier for it in recent months. After the departure of controversial CEO Carly Fiorina, the company has as of late shown newfound confidence and focus under new CEO Mark Hurd. But allâs still not well in the higher echelons of HP, as revealed in a filing the company made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The sudden and unexpected resignation of Silicon Valley venture capitalist Thomas Perkins from HPâs board of directors in May turned into a full-blown scandal last week, spawning law enforcement and SEC investigations and a PR nightmare for HP. At the center of the controversy is a legally and ethically questionable internal investigation of leaks of confidential company information to the media dating back to 2005. According to a copy of a letter from Perkins to the HP board explaining his sudden resignation, and republished on thesmokinggun.comâs Web site (a sure sign, if ever there was one, that youâre in the PR doghouse), HP hired outside companies to obtain personal phone records of board members using âpretextingâ (thatâs âsocial engineeringâ to you and me), in which a private investigator impersonated board members to obtain details of private phone company billing statements. In his letter, Perkins says he has proof that his own phone records were âhackedâ in the investigation. Those investigations ultimately fingered George Keyworth, an HP director since 1986, as the source of information about board deliberations and other confidential information, which were leaked to the media without authorization. Keyworth acknowledged he had leaked information at a board meeting on May 18 but refused the boardâs request to step down. Perkins announced his own resignation at that meeting, citing âpersonal frustrationâ with board Chairwoman Patricia Dunn over the handling of the leak investigation. In the meantime, the dispute has spilled over into the public domain. The attorney general of California asked HP to supply information about the leak investigation. The SEC has also been in touch over the 8-K filing HP made when Perkins resigned. HP believes its disclosures in May were âaccurate and complete.â In an Aug. 31 meeting, HPâs board of directors determined that Keyworth shouldnât be nominated for another term on the board.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Investigators for Hewlett-Packard Co. sought private telephone records of board members while trying to figure out which director leaked confidential company information to the media, the computer maker disclosed in a regulatory filing Wednesday.
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By Ross Kerber, The Boston Globe  Sep. 16--Needham private investigator Ronald R. DeLia yesterday was asked  to testify in Washington this month by congressional officials looking for  explanations in the corporate-spying affair at Hewlett-Packard Co.