|
|
| Financial Times: HP spied on employees too - Updated |
 |
|
Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 08:59 PM EDT
|
This story just keeps on growing. And it gets uglier and uglier. Or sillier and sillier, depending on your sense of humor. Now the Financial Times' Kevin Allison reports that a memo sent to HP employees by Patricia Dunn on Tuesday listed categories of victims of privacy invasion, and the list includes two HP employees, not just board members: Private investigators working for Hewlett-Packard’s board spied on two employees in addition to board members and journalists in an attempt to uncover a boardroom leak, it was revealed on Wednesday....
Patricia Dunn, HP’s chairman, said in a message to employees on Tuesday that investigators hired to ferret out a boardroom mole had used questionable tactics on “certain directors, two employees and a number of individuals outside the company including journalists”.
What does that mean, "certain directors"? I thought the story was that the reason Ms. Dunn couldn't find out the details of the spy mission was because she herself was a target, which implied that all the directors were subject to investigation. But the memo says only "certain directors" were subject to questionable tactics, not all, and that raises some questions in my mind.
If the "questionable tactics" were only used against some directors, does that signify that at some point, the investigation had been narrowed down to certain ones on the board and certain employees, and somebody at that point had to say, Carry on, men, and now dig deeper? No? What else can it mean? And does that mean HP spied on all its employees and then narrowed it down to two, giving only them the "questionable tactics" treatment? I realize HP has been cost-cutting, but I think the story would be better for HP if the "questionable tactics" were used across the board, so to speak, no pun intended.
And I'm sure we'd all like that "number of individuals outside the company" quantified. Is it the nine journalists and two family members, Stephen Shankland's dad and Dawn Kawamoto's husband, or are there more yet to be revealed? I must point out that the
fact that the Financial Times has this memo demonstrates that the leaks at HP have yet to be altogether plugged. Or it might be getting worse. Maybe some HP employee got so mad at hearing what happened, he or she decided to become a leaker too. That's the thing about mean mistrust. It's contagious. Listen. If you're at HP and yearning to leak to the media, don't call us, 'kay? Email either. IM isn't safe. If you simply must leak something, might I suggest the Linux pigeon protocol? It's that or we're back to sneakernet. Trust no one.
: ) Think about Trusted Computing, folks, in this context. Who'll need PIs then? Your own computer will be spying on you night and day. What a glorious future awaits us all. I'm afraid it'll be the Comfy Chair for anyone crazy enough to become a journalist in that Brave New World. "Confess! Confess! Confess! Confess!"
Update: HP has now hired a law firm to represent it in the criminal matters, according to Justin Scheck's article, "HP (Sans Sonsini) Sits Down with Feds," in Law.com: In fact, the troubled tech company has hired Morgan, Lewis & Bockius as it tries to fend off various criminal investigations ....
On Monday, Morgan, Lewis lawyers sat down with San Francisco federal prosecutors in hopes of forestalling federal criminal charges.
The Monday meeting involved a "proffer" — a normal step these days in white-collar investigations, in which a company under scrutiny offers up information to the government with certain conditions, as a means of showing good-faith cooperation with investigators. They've hired another outside firm to make sure any future investigations are handled legally, following advice from Wilson, Sonsini. And Mercury News reports that the PI has been identified: The operator of a small Massachusetts security firm has been identified by a source as the individual Hewlett Packard retained to investigate boardroom leaks to the media.
The individual is Ronald R. DeLia, according to a source familar with the HP board investigation. DeLia is listed in public documents as the registered agent of the Boston-area company Security Outsourcing Solutions. So now Massachusetts authorities are involved: "We can confirm that the California Attorney General has contacted our Attorney General Tom Reilly regarding this HP matter," said Meredith Baumann, a spokeswoman for Reilly's office. "We have offered our assistance with the investigation." And you can read Patricia Dunn's apology
to Peter Burrows of BusinessWeek, one of three BusinessWeek reporters whose phone records were accessed. BusinessWeek had this statement: "We are deeply disturbed that our First Amendment rights and the privacy rights of three of our journalists have been violated," says BusinessWeek Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler. "These actions by Hewlett-Packard and its agents potentially endanger the confidentiality of our sources and undermine our good-faith efforts to report matters of public interest. In addition, they invade the privacy not only of our reporters but of all their phone contacts. We urge Hewlett-Packard immediately to provide a detailed account of exactly which records they obtained so we can take appropriate steps to limit the damage."
|
|
|
|
| Authored by: bbaston on Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 09:43 PM EDT |
| So PJ can find 'em! ---
IMBW, IANAL2, IMHO, IAVO
imaybewrong, iamnotalawyertoo, inmyhumbleopinion, iamveryold [ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: bbaston on Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 09:44 PM EDT |
| Supply links as appropriate, please! ---
IMBW, IANAL2, IMHO, IAVO
imaybewrong, iamnotalawyertoo, inmyhumbleopinion, iamveryold [ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: bbaston on Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 09:53 PM EDT |
From the Financial Times article:
"Concerns that board members
and executives could become caught up in the legal fallout of the spying scandal
sent HP shares down 1.5 per cent on Wednesday to
$36.37."
'Bout time stock purchasers showed some
concern!---
IMBW, IANAL2, IMHO, IAVO
imaybewrong, iamnotalawyertoo, inmyhumbleopinion, iamveryold [ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 09:55 PM EDT |
| PJ, what you call the "Linux Pigeon Protocol" is entirely independent of Linux:
it is an experimental protocol published in a couple of April 1 RFCs, such as RFC 2549.
I know that you
love Linux, but this really does look very cheesy indeed, attaching the Linux
label to something that had nothing to do with Linux. [ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 10:14 PM EDT |
| Executives believed to have been most directly privy to boardroom discussions
include Ann Baskins, the company’s general counsel and secretary.
As head
of HP’s legal department, Ms Baskins was also ultimately in charge of making
sure that the leak investigation ordered by Ms Dunn was carried
out.
---
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner. [ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: tce on Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 10:16 PM EDT |
Shall we gather our favorite organization spying / tech-spies-on-us stories
here?[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 10:20 PM EDT |
Where I came from, the highway patrol used to set up all sorts of speed traps
and ambushes for traffic. I remember many people complaining about it, and it
was the topic of a few political platforms but somehow, nothing was ever done
about it.
One day, a state rep was driving down the road and got caught in one of these
ambushes. He raised Holy Hell and in less than a week, a problem for the little
guy for the last 20 years was magically solved when the problem started to
affect the 'big fish'.
I see the samething here. What was just a problem before is now a big problem
since it's affecting the 'big fish'. It's really really sad.
[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: hardmath on Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 11:10 PM EDT |
It's hard to tell from a distance, but it sounds as if P. Dunn is trying to come
clean with the staff at HP about the extent of misconduct in an effort to put
the ethical and potentially legal breaches behind them.
From a morale standpoint it's arguably The Right Thing To Do.
regards, hm
---
Please be honest with us as trust is our watchword in this transaction. (a
Senior Credit Officer, sharing vast sums of money owed to a deceased client)[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: kawabago on Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 11:21 PM EDT |
The funny thing about the Trusted Computing platform is that being trusted is
it's weakness. But don't worry, nobody wants it except Microsoft and corporate
copyright holders. It's going to be in Vista, which nobody wants. In fact it
looks like we may not even have to break Trusted Computing, it will probably go
down the same drain Microsoft is circling right now.
[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Brian S. on Wednesday, September 13 2006 @ 11:46 PM EDT |
For the past week, Hewlett-Packard Co. has refused to identify private
investigators the company retained to investigate leaks by its board of
directors. People familiar with the matter say H-P has told them one of the
investigators connected to the case is Ronald R. DeLia, from a small Boston firm
called Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc. that says it specializes in
corporate-security investigations..... Wall Street
Journal
MASSACHUSETTS AUTHORITIES WORKING WITH
CALIFORNIA
The operator of a small Massachusetts security firm has been
identified by a source as the individual Hewlett Packard retained to investigate
boardroom leaks to the media.
The individual is Ronald R. DeLia, according
to a source familar with the HP board investigation. DeLia is listed in public
documents as the registered agent of the Boston-area company Security
Outsourcing Solutions...... Mercury News
Brian S.
[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: ssavitzky on Thursday, September 14 2006 @ 12:03 AM EDT |
It's actually just the Linux implementation of CPIP -- Carrier
Pigeon Internet Protocol. I wrote a song about
it a few days after it was done.
There's an LPP as well; it's the Line
Printer Protocol, if I remember correctly.
---
Never anger a bard, for
your name sounds funny and scans to Greensleeves. [ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 14 2006 @ 12:21 AM EDT |
Many other companies spy on their employees as well. Only difference is that HP
was caught at it.
[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Thursday, September 14 2006 @ 12:22 AM EDT |
Naturally, the pretexting sounds plausible.
Suppose the call records were obtained from another source.
All things considered, it would not surprise me.
---
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 14 2006 @ 01:29 AM EDT |
"Brazil"
They used probably some HP technology.[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 14 2006 @ 02:33 AM EDT |
I would like to call everybodies attention to a gpl project that allows you to
use strong encryption over any connection between two computers who used the
software. It just sits on your network and encrypts everything that goes out on
the internet to any other computer that is likewise equiped. You can put any
kind of traffic across it. Just imagine it, you could make phone calls (voip)
to others, without much chance that anyone like HP could eavesdrop. Well, the
NSA on the otherhand probably could, still. Of course, if the usage became wide
enough, they would have quite a problem on their hands. In fact, they might
even have to be a lot more discerning in who they spied on.
Dan[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 14 2006 @ 03:57 AM EDT |
HP Board lacks integrity
The spying scandal is a sorry comedown for a company that HAD a reputation for
excellence and integrity.
The board's actions have been more of the CYA variety than of truthfulness.
* WHAT PHONE RECORDS? The board played dumb when they realized that directors'
phone records were used in the leak investigation. No one asked, "How did
we get these records?"
* BOARD MEMBER RESIGNED FOR "PERSONAL REASONS": Perkins resigned in
May. HP resisted proper reporting to the SEC of the reasons for Perkins'
resignation until the past few days.
* STONEWALLING: Dunn and Hurd have made only weak apologies. Dunn has been far
more strident about tracing the leaks from an individual than about the
corporate breech of integrity in fraudulent investigations.
* PROTECTING CRIMINALS: HP has refused to identify the private investigation
firm or the third party investigators who are suspected of doing the
pretexting.
* WEAK APPEASEMENT: Recent announcement of Board changes are weak.
1. Dunn remains chair for 4 MONTHS.
2. She remains on the Board.
3. She will be replaced by Mark Hurd, who is also CEO and President.
4. The Board will backtracking on its new rule, that the Chair and CEO would be
different people. This weakens HP's Corporate Governance.
If the Board had any integrity, it would have acted...
* immediately, upon learning of wrong doing
* without coverup, without excuses
* without compromise to the offenders
The Board must demand Dunn's resignation from the Board. (There will be more
legal fallout for HP if she remains, than if she leaves and HP cooperates fully
with the California State, Federal, Congressional, SEC and FBI investigations).
The Board needs to have a non-executive Chair. There needs to be a check on the
CEO.
The Board must make a public statement, repudiating in the strongest terms, the
tactics used by its private investigators, and reiterating its stand on
corporate integrity.
The Board must take ACTION to convince the business and investment community
that it is determined to regain the mantle of integrity and excellence it once
had under Hewlett and Packard.[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: rao on Thursday, September 14 2006 @ 09:10 AM EDT |
What else can it mean?
It could just mean that
when they found what they were looking for they stopped the investigation.
[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 14 2006 @ 09:35 AM EDT |
I wonder if we will ever hear about the PI's other customers?
It would be interesting get a look at his billing records, and see if there were
any other major corporations on his customer list.[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, September 14 2006 @ 12:37 PM EDT |
Seen on Slashdot:
"What if I need to circulate my resume?"
[ Reply to This | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: _Arthur on Thursday, September 14 2006 @ 12:56 PM EDT |
Why Dunn Resigned
http://www.slate.com/id/2149379/?nav=fix
Notice that on page 5, Sonsini outright lies to Perkins, stating that only HP
employees phone records were obtained.
1) Most Board Directors aren't HP employees
2) The 9 journalists certainly were not
3) The 2 family members even less[ Reply to This | # ]
|
|
|
|
|
