Report: Evidence suggests HP spied on Dell
638127
Blog: Hewlett-Packard obtained 'confidential' material related to Dell's printing business, according to Fortune magazine, citing unnamed former HP employees.
261565
(InfoWorld) - A day after Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP)Â chairman Patricia Dunn promised to step down for her role in a spy scandal, the state of California is continuing its effort to indict her and the private investigators she used. Dunn's actions were not merely unethical but actually violated the law, and the state now has enough evidence to indict people both within HP and contractors outside the company, according to Thomas Dressler, a spokesman for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. In her efforts to discover the source of press leaks about board deliberations,Â HP has acknowledged that Dunn hired a private investigation firmÂ to pose as the 10 suspected board members and journalists in order to convince the phone company to disclose private phone records. This is a practice known as pretexting. In an interview on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Tuesday, Lockyer said that under California law, people involved in the probe could be charged with crimes both for falsely taking another person's identity and for accessing computer records with their personal information. Dressler confirmed Lockyer's comments. HP hired investigation firm Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc. (SOS), which shares its Boston offices with a law firm called Bonner, Kiernan, Trebach and Crociata, according toÂ a report in The New York Times that sited sources close to the case. The Times also said that the California and Massachusetts attorney generals were working together on the case. Dressler declined to confirm the name of the security firm HP hired, or whether California and Massachusetts are working together on the case. "I'm not going to deny it, but beyond what the attorney general said I'm not going to comment. It's not prudent for prosecutors to mention names before bringing charges," Dressler said. A call to SOS on Wednesday was answered by a woman who recited the name of the law firm, but denied the two businesses were connected. She declined to give her name, and said that no one was immediately available for comment. Ironically, an SOS newsletter posted on the firm's Web site warns corporate executives that their privacy is at risk since their Web surfing and e-mail records can be traced by Internet browsers and cookies. It advises clients to shield their identities by using a Web site called Anonymizer.com. Â
513264
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.
64308
Internal documents say HP has pretexted before and that its investigators trailed a reporter while on vacation.
735616
By RACHEL KONRAD Associated Press  Company-hired investigators sought the source of a leak.   SAN FRANCISCO -- Investigators for Hewlett-Packard Co.
257633
By Jim Hopkins and Jon Swartz  Mark Hurd admits company ran  covert probes in which investigators spied on directors, journalists, others  PALO ALTO, Calif.
85821
(InfoWorld) - In one of his first public acts to address the burgeoning Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) spy scandal, Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd plans to brief reporters Friday about the findings of an analysis conducted by the company's law firm. HP retained Morgan, Lewis & Bockius for the outside analysis of the company's actions in trying to find the source of a boardroom news leak. The scandal led toÂ the resignation of company Chairman Patricia Dunn, who will turn over that job to Hurd in January. Dunn and Hurd have said they knew about the operation, but insist they never approved of the possible illegal methods used by third-party investigators to obtain communications records of reporters and some HP employees and directors. "What began as an effort to prevent the leaks of confidential information from HP's board room ended up heading in directions that were never anticipated," Hurd said in a written statement. However, company e-mail records seem to indicate that both executives knew about the investigators' "pretexting" practices while they were going on, according toÂ recent stories in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Pretexting involves pretending to be someone to obtain their telephone records. In Friday's meeting, a representative from the law firm will share its findings, describing "exactly what took place and when," Hurd said. Dunn has also saidÂ she will share more information about the episode, promising to "set the record straight" about allegations that she oversaw the illegal operation. Morgan Lewis will also represent the company in government inquiries such as criminal investigations by the California and Massachusetts attorneys general, and by the U.S. House of Representatives. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has said that he has enough evidence to indict certain people at HP and its contractors with crimes related to their methods in obtaining private phone records of reporters, board members and other employees. Â
386604
This article discusses the discovery of compromised machines in large enterprise environments, and offers some suggestions on correlating NIDS and HIPS logs to avoid false positives.
612538
A small security company in suburban Boston has emerged as a subject in the investigation of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s boardroom spying scandal, according to a source familiar with the matter.
447997
In an investigation supervised little by Hewlett-Packard, investigators may have physically followed directors and journalists, as well as attempted to place Trojans on reporters' computers to track communications.
381035
(InfoWorld) - A U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee probing theÂ Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) pretexting case has issued more subpoenas to compel witness testimony at a Thursday hearing. The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Energy and Commerce Committee issued subpoenas Wednesday for five people identified as "pretexters," data brokers who sometimes obtain access to confidential records under false pretenses. HP has been embroiled in a scandal over its hiring of private investigators who engaged in possibly illegal pretexting to investigate news leaks from HP's board to reporters. Served with subpoenas, according to the Subcommittee, are: Bryan Wagner, a private investigator from Littleton, Colorado; Charles Kelly, of the CAS Agency in Villa Rica, Georgia; Cassandra Selvage of Eye in the Sky Investigations, of Dade City, Florida; Darren Brost, of Austin, Texas; and Valerie Preston from InSearchOf Inc., of Cooper City, Florida. Wagner was identified in a Wednesday Wall Street Journal article as a suspect in the pretexting of phone records of HP directors, employees and journalists who cover the Palo Alto, California technology company. The Journal reported that Wagner told an investigator that he smashed his computer to pieces with a hammer, destroying data that was saved on it. The article also said that the destruction of the computer may hamper an investigation by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office into possible illegal activity by people at HP or by the private investigators HP hired. The five who were subpoenaed Wednesday have been added to a list of witnesses that also includes HP's Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd and former board chairman Patricia Dunn, who resigned last Friday because of the scandal. While Dunn and Hurd have volunteered to appear, two other HP executives involved in the investigation were subpoenaed: senior counsel Kevin Hunsaker and Global Security Manager Anthony Gentilucci. Hunsaker "left the company" and Gentilucci "resigned" effective Tuesday, said HP spokesman Ryan Donovan. Also subpoenaed are Ron DeLia, operator of Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc., a Needham, Massachusetts, private investigations firm, and Joe Depante, owner of Action Research Group, of Melbourne, Florida. HP has acknowledged hiring both those firms in its leak investigation and that they used pretexting to track down personal phone records. Â
670855
(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Department of Justice is asking questions about conduct by Hewlett-Packard Co. that has embroiled the technology company in controversy. HP acknowledged in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday that it isÂ cooperating with an inquiryÂ by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California intoÂ possibly illegal tactics used by investigators hired by HP to investigate news leaks from the company's board members. HP described the U.S. Attorney's inquiry as "informal" and said the questions are similar to those asked by the attorney general of California. HP is based in Palo Alto, California. "We are cooperating fully with these inquiries," HP said in its SEC filing. The probes are looking into the use of "pretexting" to search phone records to determine which board members may have been talking to reporters. The phone records of nine reporters from various news organizations were also obtained to determine who their sources from within HP might have been on stories about the company. Pretexting refers to posing as a phone company customer to get access to personal records. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer says a crime was committed in connection with the pretexting, but his office is still investigating what crime and by whom. The scandal has brought pressure on HP Chairman Patricia Dunn, who ordered the investigation, but claims she didn't know the outside investigative firm hired to trace the leaks would engage in pretexting. HP's board is meeting Monday for the second straight day to discuss its response to the controversy. Former HP director Thomas Perkins, who quit in protest in May because of the way the investigation was conducted, called on Dunn to resign. His statement, released Saturday by his attorney, was prompted by Dunn's comments in media interviews last week in which she alleged that it was Perkins who wanted "more aggressive measures" used to investigate the leaks, including use of lie detectors on board members. "I am saddened, but not surprised, that Patricia Dunn has attacked me personally for doing my job. I acted not from any ill will toward Ms. Dunn but to protect the best interests of HP. I think the past months and days have shown that those interests are best served if Ms. Dunn would resign from the board," said Jenkins in his statement. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission also is investigating HP. The FCC reportedly sent a "letter of inquiry" to AT&T Inc. asking how its customer phone records may have been accessed, according to an Associated Press report. An FCC spokesman could not confirm that. HP's internal probe identified director George Keyworth as the source for a CNet Networks Inc. story about HP's strategy, which the technology news Web site posted in January. He refused to resign when asked to doÂ so by Dunn in May, but theÂ board has since voted not to renominate him to his seat. Â
404185
(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."
460282
(InfoWorld) - IT investors had a mixed bag of news to digest this week, in the wake of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s boardroom spy scandal, and Xerox Corp.'s annual pilgrimage to New York to woo the Wall Street crowd. It's a measure of HP Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd's success so far that the company has not been harder hit by theÂ boardroom spy scandal, in which outside investigators hired by the board used allegedly illegal means to spy on employees, board members and reporters. In order to smooth things over, Hurd will replace Dunn in January and retain his CEO title. The spying was sparked by leaks to the press, which ironically included information on discussions that led to the firing of former CEO Carly Fiorina. It's ironic because under Hurd, the company's takeover of Compaq Computer Corp. -- a controversial acquisition engineered by Fiorina -- seems to be paying off. Hurd has reorganized the company to cut costs, and HP is gaining PC market share and growing almost as fast as its archrival in that market, Dell Inc. Since HP is much larger than Dell, that growth is remarkable. Much of it is the result of reorganized company logistics, supply-chain management, inventory control, as well as a continued push on the product front. The spy scandal has not implicated Hurd, and that's a good thing. Company shares did take a hit after Tuesday's disclosure by the California state attorney general on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer that he had enough evidence to charge HP officials. Still, shares (HPQ) closed Thursday at $36.25, about where they were right before the scandal broke last week. The share price is still up 3.12 percent for the month and 31.81 percent for the year. As long as Hurd is not implicated in the scandal, the company seems poised to continue its run, even if Dunn or other board members are indicted. Of the seven major brokers changing their recommendations on the company this year, all but one have been to upgrade their recommendations -- the one exception was before the scandal. Meanwhile, HP's archrival in printers, Xerox, is having a hard time gaining traction in the market. The company made its annual pitch to Wall Street last week in a series of product and services rollouts. The consensus among analysts appears to be that CEO Anne Mulcahy is making all the right moves: slimming down the company, integrating and expanding services, keeping up pressure on rivals in the small and medium-size business market, and keeping its lead on the high-end production market. But share price was not affected by her pitch to Wall Street. Shares (XRX) closed Thursday right where they were on the last day of her pitch last Friday, at $14.90. "The strategy is there, but Wall Street wants to see more growth," noted IDC analyst Keith Kmetz. Various competitors including Asian manufacturers have "nibbled away" at the low end of the market, Kmetz said, but Xerox still has a command position in the production market and is strong in the market for office color printing and multifunction devices. Only HP can claim to rival Xerox in the full scope of products and services. But growth is tepid. Xerox second quarter revenue rose to $3.98 billion from $3.92 billion last year. The message from company executives appears to that Xerox will be able to achieve growth rates experienced by HP as services grow nearer to 50 percent of company revenue. But as Mulcahy told IDG, "whether that will be in three, or five years, I can't say."
600510
(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer Mark Hurd blamedÂ the scandalÂ that has besieged his company on "a rogue investigation" that got out of hand, in an advance copy of his Congressional testimony released by a House Subcommittee on Wednesday. "How did such an abuse of privacy occur in a company renowned for its privacy? The end came to justify the means," Hurd wrote. "The investigation team became so focused on finding the source of the leaks that they lost sight of the privacy of reporters and others. They lost sight of the values HP has always represented." Former HP Chairman Patricia Dunn,Â forced to resignÂ Sept. 21 because of the scandal, defended in her testimony her decision toÂ investigate the leaksÂ of confidential board discussions to the news media. In her testimony, Dunn wrote that she knew investigators were obtaining the phone records of people it was investigating. Lawyers for HP and for an investigation firm carrying out the probe assured her the tactics were legal, she wrote. "I was fully convinced that HP would never engage in anything illegal," she wrote. "Given that attorneys were unambiguously overseeing the investigation ... reinforced my understanding that the investigations were being handled appropriately." Both are among severalÂ witnesses expected at a hearingÂ before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday in Washington. The committee is looking into the practice of "pretexting," or using false pretenses to gain access to confidential records. Investigators hired by HP to find the source of leaks engaged in pretexting to get hold of the phone records of directors, HP employees and reporters who cover the Palo Alto, California, technology company. Hurd, echoing comments he made in a news conference last Friday at HP's headquarters, said he was determined to get to the bottom of this episode and to try to restore HP's image. "I pledge that HP will take whatever steps are necessary to make sure nothing like this ever happens again," he wrote, "and that this company will regain not just its reputation ... but its pride." Although much of the criticism of the scandal surrounds the tactics used by the investigators, Dunn wrote in her testimony that equal consideration should be given to the leaks from within the company that damaged HP. HP's board was notorious for its leaks to news media and such disclosures made it difficult for the board to deal with important issues candidly, she wrote. Dunn explained that board deliberations on the selection of a replacement for former CEO Carly Fiorina in 2005 were leaked. She cited a BusinessWeek magazine story "disclosing opinions about various candidates and revealing details about ... the search process." "If you were a top CEO candidate, would you want to work for a company whose board could not be trusted to keep such information confidential? HP is very lucky to have been able to recruit Mark Hurd under such circumstances," Dunn wrote. "I wish fervently that none of this had ever happened," Dunn continued. "But boards have an unquestionable obligation to take steps to prevent [leaks]. That certain steps taken during the investigation went well beyond what was appropriate does not undermine the importance of the board's mission in this matter." Hurd also outlined several steps the company is taking internally to clarify its privacy policy for employees and to emphasize it in employee training programs.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.
610535
(InfoWorld) - Last year's HP Technology Forum was chased out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. This year, storm clouds of a different sort hang over the event. As an estimated 6,000 attendees converge on Houston for the annual Hewlett-Packard user conference, the subject on many minds is the one the company is most loathe to discuss: theÂ shakeup of HP's boardÂ and theÂ prospect of criminal chargesÂ related to a spying scandal. The California Attorney General and a Congressional committee are among the institutions probing HP's possibly illegal methods of investigating news leaks from its board. HP has until Tuesday to respond to an invitation from the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee for HP's Chairman Patricia Dunn and General Counsel Ann Baskins to testify at a Sept. 28 hearing in Washington. But at the Technology Forum, a gathering of HP user groups, partners and other vendors, HP is focusing on its business success, which is considerable. With revenue, earnings and stock price all resurgent in the last year, HP CEO Mark Hurd could rightly say, "Pay no attention to that prosecutor behind the curtain," when he delivers a keynote address on Sept. 18. In the quarter ended July 31, HP's earnings-per-share (EPS) topped analysts' estimates at $0.52 on 5 percent revenue growth to $21.9 billion, compared to the year ago quarter. Across many of its business lines, HP, of Palo Alto, California, has gained on rivals, said industry analyst Rob Enderle. HP personal computer sales have grown with its "the computer is personal again" marketing campaign, Enderle noted. IBMÂ sold its personal computer businessÂ to Lenovo Group, in 2005, and Dell has suffered negative publicity from the AugustÂ recall of 4.1 million fire-prone batteriesÂ in Dell laptops. In storage, HP closed the market share gap with EMC in second quarter numbers released Aug. 29 by research firm IDC. With EMC's 20 percent share, based on unit sales, to HP's 19.3 percent, the two are in a "statistical tie" said Brad Nisbet, an analyst with IDC. "HP has been executing well under new management," Nisbet said, referring to Hurd, CEO since March 2005. In servers, HP is a strong second to IBM, according to IDC market share numbers, but has made some errors, said Enderle. It still is using Intel's Itanium processor in its high-end Integrity servers, which rivals aren't embracing. Gartner research shows that 90 percent of the Itanium chips shipped in the first quarter of this year ran on HP servers; neither Dell nor IBM build Itanium computers. Technology Forum organizers get tight-lipped when the conversation shifts to the board scandal. "That's HP's business," said Nina Buik, vice president of Encompass, one of the HP user groups planning the event. "We're not focused on those issues unless it impacts the technology." And as long as the scandal doesn't touch Hurd personally, the customer satisfaction should be unaffected, said Crawford Del Prete, senior vice president of research at IDC. . "I don't think [the scandal] is a drag on the company's success," he said. "I have not found one customer who said 'I'm not going to do business, or I am concerned about doing business, with Hewlett-Packard as a result of this.'" HP Technology forum runs from Sunday to Thursday this week.
146879
HP CEO Mark Hurd knew of plans for a disinformation campaign designed to find the source of leaks from boardroom talks, The Washington Post reported today.