House panel widens HP probe
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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.
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Friday's press event provided more details about HP's leak probe. But it failed to answer some key questions and raised new ones.
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Hewlett-Packard's HPQ.N board met   on Sunday and plans to meet again on Monday, leaving open the   question of chairman Patricia Dunn's fate as she comes under   fire for her role in ordering a controversial board   investigation into media leaks.
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A US House of Representatives panel announced a probe into the handling of a widening congressional sex scandal that has rocked the majority Republican party.
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By Michelle Quinn and Pete Carey, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Sep. 22--With pressure mounting over its troubled internal investigation  of boardroom leaks, Hewlett-Packard is shifting into serious damage control.
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By Jim Hopkins and Jon Swartz  Hewlett-Packard's boardroom spying scandal intensified Thursday when the Securities and Exchange Commission ratcheted up its inquiry into the company's covert news-leak probe.
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(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.
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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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U.S. lawmakers on Thursday plan to  shine a spotlight on Hewlett-Packard Co.'s  snooping  into the telephone records of some board members and  journalists, a practice that Congress may soon ban.
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Two Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N   officials were subpoenaed to testify at a House Energy and   Commerce subcommittee hearing Thursday on the company's probe   into leaks from its board, a source familiar with the   investigation said on Monday.
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WASHINGTON -- A Needham private investigator told Hewlett-Packard Co. representatives that he kept former chairwoman Patricia Dunn briefed about the questionable methods he used to find boardroom leaks, according to testimony at congressional hearings yesterday and documents filed in connection with the hearings.
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Hewlett-Packard Chairman Patricia Dunn will answer questions on the spying scandal that has embroiled her company during a House committee hearing on Capitol Hill next week.
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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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(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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The U.S. Department of Justice is asking questions about conduct by Hewlett-Packard Co. that has embroiled the technology company in controversy.
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(InfoWorld) - 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. "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 , forced to resign Sept. 21 because ofÂ the scandal,Â defended in her testimony her decision to investigate the leaks of confidential board discussions to the news media. Both are among several witnesses expected at a hearing 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. 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 that such disclosures made it difficult for the board to deal with important issues candidly, she wrote. "I wish fervently that none of this had ever happened," Dunn wrote in her testimony. "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."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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Mobile providers and the heads of the FTC and FCC have been summoned to a second day of House subcommittee hearings this week as Congress continues its investigation of the HP boardroom spying scandal.