HP says targeted own spokesman in media leak probe
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Hewlett-Packard Co.  said on  Sunday that it used improper methods to access phone records of  two employees, including its own spokesman, in an internal  probe into leaks to the media.
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A former Hewlett-Packard Co.   HPQ.N board member has asked U.S. prosecutors, as well as   U.S. trade and communications regulators, to review an HP   investigation in which directors' and journalists' private   phone records were accessed.
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Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Chief  Executive Mark Hurd had approved a "sting" operation on a  reporter to investigate boardroom media leaks, The Washington  Post reported, and embattled Chairman Patricia Dunn said she  looked forward to "setting the record straight" soon.
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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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(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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Hewlett-Packard Co. yesterday said a Needham private investigator assured the computer maker its investigative methods were legal, then apparently used ``pretexting," or lying, to obtain phone and fax records of 18 company board members, employees, and journalists.
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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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Hewlett-Packard Co. said Chairman Patricia Dunn was unaware of tactics used in an investigation into boardroom leaks to reporters. Meanwhile, reports say the California attorney general is likely to bring criminal charges.
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Commercial online service was used to track e-mail sent to a reporter in Hewlett-Packard's leak probe, investigator testifies. Images: Commercial e-mail tracking
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Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) has submitted thousands of documents to a House subcommittee looking into how the company tracked down boardroom leaks.
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd knew of plans for a disinformation campaign designed to find the source ofÂ leaks from boardroom discussions, The Washington Post reported Thursday. The report implicates Hurd more deeply in the scandal than was previously believed. The HP CEO and President is set toÂ replace Patricia DunnÂ as chairman of the company's board of directors in January. Dunn said she would step down Sept. 12 as the result of an internal investigation into practices used to find the source of news leaks about matters discussed by the board. The disinformation campaign was designed to uncover the source of the leaks by creating a phony HP insider who would gain the trust of a reporter, feed her false information, and in the process place a software tracer on her e-mail using an attachment, according to e-mails obtained by the Post. The nonexistent insider's persona was created by HP Senior Counsel Kevin Hunsaker and an unnamed HP colleague of Hunsaker's in Boston, it said. None of the e-mails are from or to Hurd, but refer to his knowledge or approval of various actions, the report said. The Post did not say how it obtained the "more than two dozen" e-mails. HP declined to comment or to make Hurd available for an interview. Some of the e-mails were sent by Dunn, such as a Feb. 9 e-mail to Hunsaker and HP's General Counsel Ann O. Baskins. Dunn wrote, "I spoke with Mark and he is on board with the plan to use the info on new handheld [device]," the report said. The company had planned to feed the journalist information about an upcoming handheld product to help tease out the source of the leaks, the Post said. In a Feb. 22 e-mail to Hunsaker, Dunn wrote, "Kevin, I think this is very clever. As a matter of course anything that is going to potentially be seen outside HP should have Mark's approval as well," the report said. Dunn is referring to a slide of phony products Hunsaker had created to pass off to the reporter as inside information. Hunsaker sent an e-mail to Dunn on Feb. 23, stating, "FYI, I spoke to Mark a few minutes ago and he is fine with both the concept and the content," the report said. The Wall Street Journal also reported Thursday that it had seen internal HP emails suggesting that Hurd was closer to the leaks investigation than had previously been thought. HP's investigation into the leaks, and potential illegal conduct that may have occurred as part of it, will be the subject ofÂ House Subcommittee meetingÂ Sept. 28. Dunn and others areÂ scheduled to testifyÂ voluntarily regarding their role in and knowledge of the investigation and its methods. An outside private investigation firm hired by HP to look into the boardroom leaks may haveÂ illegally obtained the phone recordsÂ of HP employees, nine journalists who had written about the company, and some of its own board members. The use of a technique called pretexting, in which people disguise their identity in order to obtain private information about others, is at issue. So far the scandal has led to the resignation of two HP board members, along with Dunn saying she will step down as chairman in January.
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NEW YORK -- Investigators for Hewlett-Packard Co. sought private telephone records of board members while hunting for leaks to the media of confidential company information, the computer maker said in a regulatory filing Wednesday.
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Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Chief   Executive Mark Hurd had approved a "sting" operation on a   reporter to investigate boardroom media leaks, The Washington   Post reported, and embattled Chairman Patricia Dunn said she   looked forward to "setting the record straight" soon.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N is   under investigation by U.S. federal prosecutors over its   inquiry into boardroom leaks to the press, authorities said on   Monday, adding to the computer maker's legal woes.
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Hewlett-Packard Co.  is  under investigation by U.S. federal prosecutors over its  inquiry into boardroom leaks to the press, authorities said on  Monday, adding to the computer maker's legal woes.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N said on   Sunday that it used improper methods to access phone records of   two employees, including its own spokesman, in an internal   probe into leaks to the media.
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(InfoWorld) - In one telling moment during the recent Congressional hearings onÂ the Hewlett-Packard Co. board scandal, ousted chairman Patricia Dunn offered the "everybody does it" defense. Asked by one legislator about HPâs hiring private investigators who obtained phone records under false pretenses, a practice called pretexting, to identify whoâd leaked confidential information, Dunn replied, "I believe these [pretexting] methods may be quite common at companies around the country." If so, that is chilling to business ethicist Kirk Hanson. "As an ethicist Iâm horrified that HPâs managers relied on the assertion that it was borderline, but legal, and never asked whether it was ethical," says Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, in Santa Clara, California. If HP adopted what Hanson called "black ops" as standard investigative practices, he wonders how many other companies have done it. HP, some of its employees and companies it hired to investigate boardroom leaks to news media still face potential civil and criminal liability for their actions. Other companies find themselves in a dilemma over how to control information within the law. Companies may have a moral or legal responsibility to respect peopleâs privacy, but they also have a legal and fiduciary responsibility to protect confidential business information. And under the federalÂ Sarbanes-Oxley ActÂ in effect the last four years, they have obligations to investigate certain leaks, Hanson says. Companies have a right to investigate their own employees if theyâre suspected of leaking information. Employees should presume no right to privacy in their use of company computers, e-mail programs or telephones. One commonly used tactic to probe security breaches doesnât even involve electronic snooping. Companies exclusively give suspected leakers seemingly important but relatively benign information. If it turns up in the media, the company has identified the leaker. But Hanson sees a bright line separating how a company can investigate its own employees and how it can investigate outsiders. The HP reaction to leaks to reporters contrasts with the recent practice of Apple Computer Inc. when proprietary information got out. Although Apple is known for its devotion to secrecy, it went to court rather than to private eyes when confidential information leaked in 2004. Apple, of Cupertino, California, sued in state court to force two Web sites to reveal sources for stories they posted about a possible new Apple product. A state appellate court ruled May 26 that the writers on those Web sites enjoy the same First Amendment rights as mainstream journalists and, thus, were protected by Californiaâs shield law from having to reveal their sources. Apple dropped the case. It did not reply to a request for comment on this story. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires companies to develop a whistle-blowing reporting system so employees can raise issues about improper behavior within the company, said Hanson. That has prompted companies to develop an investigative capability in the event improper or illegal activity is alleged. "So (under SOX), companies have developed much enhanced investigative capability," he said. Companies also have to keep confidential information safe because disclosure could be a criminal act or a breach of fiduciary responsibility, said Rob Enderle, senior analyst at Enderle Group, a technology market research firm. If word leaks that a board is contemplating an acquisition, for instance, the company or people in it could be prosecuted for insider trading if people used that knowledge to make stock trades. Given the potential liabilities, corporate investigations of leaks are "common," said Enderle. "The stuff with the pretexting goes to the extreme, but looking at company phone records or e-mails, that is very common. Hiring an outside contractor is also common." In fact, leak investigations enjoy broad support among corporate directors. In a September telephone survey of 226 board members at publicly traded companies in the U.S., 73 percent said a company's chairman should be empowered to use any legally available means to identify a board-level leaker, according to Ponemon Institute LLC. About 71 percent of the respondents said it would be okay for a board chairman to review the e-mail messages of other members, in addition to other types of confidential data stored on company computers. Fifty percent said that reviewing telephone records of individuals obtained via pretexting is proper as long as that approach hasn't been outlawed. But HPâs tactics of tailing reporters, attempting to install a tracer on a reporterâs e-mail program, pretexting numbers of people outside the company and even considering planting spies in newsrooms as janitors or clerical workers is "bizarre" to Rick Belluzzo. "The reaction by HP was totally out of proportion with the situation," said Belluzzo, chairman and CEO of Quantum Corp., a network storage equipment maker. His rÃ©sumÃ© includes president of Microsoft Corp. and a 23-year stint at HP, where he rose to the position of executive vice president of its computer division. While he understands the importance of keeping certain information confidential and making employees and directors sign confidentiality agreements, HP overreacted to information leaks that are sometimes going to happen anyway. "Itâs an impossible task to control information flow. Some leaks are inevitable," Belluzzo said.