CONGRESS TAKES HP TO THE WOODSHED

[Anonymous]

Congress Takes HP To The Woodshed
CEO Hurd apologizes for shady behavior, promises to make right
The
machine-gun fire of camera shutters foreshadowed verbal combat at last
week’s congressional hearings on Hewlett-Packard’s investigations into
boardroom leaks. Heated exchanges between committee members and HP
principals and partners–including CEO Mark Hurd and former chairwoman
Patricia Dunn–offered glimpses into the company’s struggles to account
for, and remedy, its questionable tactics. “I have to ask our
witnesses,” said Rep. John Dingell, R-Mich., “what were you
thinking?”The House subcommittee hearings began with former HP general
counsel Ann Baskins, who had just resigned that morning. Baskins would
become the first of 10 former HP employees and outside investigators
formerly under contract with the company to invoke their Fifth
Amendment right to not testify against themselves.
One catalyst for
the hearings was HP’s use of pretexting–obtaining phone records under
false pretenses. Private investigators working for HP used pretexting
to get phone records of every board member and several journalists
covering meetings last year and early this year, in an attempt to
ferret out leaks. The following exchange between Dunn, who authorized
the investigations, and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, was typical:Barton:
“If I came to you and asked for six months of your phone records, would
you give them to me?”Dunn: “In your position, I would give you my phone
records.”Barton: “Well, praise the Lord. I wouldn’t give you
mine.”Dunn: “I hope that doesn’t mean that you have something to
hide.”Committee members urged Congress to pass legislation to ensure
that personal phone records are kept private. Although California law
expressly prohibits pretending to be someone else to secure such
records, members said that federal regulations are too vague. “Most
Americans believe that their phone records are theirs, that they’re
private property that should only be accessed with their permission,”
Barton said. The committee passed a bill addressing this issue in May,
but it has yet to see a vote on the House floor.

Reporter Targeted
Another
sore point for committee members was HP’s use of e-mail “tracers,” zip
file attachments that, when opened, send the IP address of the
recipient back to the sender. In the course of the boardroom
investigations, HP sent one such file to a reporter, hoping to follow
the trail to the source of the leaks. According to HP investigator Fred
Adler, e-mail tracers were used 12 to 24 times since he joined the
company in 2003, though never on customers. “It’s equivalent to you
going through my mailbox,” said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas.Despite
the acrimony, HP chief Hurd escaped the hearing needing only a Band-Aid
or two. He apologized–as he had the previous week in a news
conference–to those whose privacy had been breached and to employees
and shareholders. Members accepted his assertion that he’d only
recently discovered some of the tactics used in the probe. “I wish I
would have asked more questions, and there are signs I wish I had
caught,” Hurd said. “I’m responsible for the company, which means I’m
responsible for fixing it.”Hurd said those affected would receive
details on what data had been collected on them. HP is auditing its
investigative techniques, having brought in former U.S. Attorney Bart
Schwartz to review the company’s practices, and Hurd pointed out that
several of those involved in the scandal had left the company or no
longer had contracts. HP has stopped the use of pretexting and is
analyzing whether e-mail tracers should be used at all, even in cases
of stolen goods, Hurd said.”There’ll never be a time that we don’t make
mistakes,” Hurd said in closing, attributing the quote to HP co-founder
David Packard. He’d earlier said Packard never would have approved of
pretexting. Now Congress should prove it doesn’t either

[Author]

October 3, 2006 at 11:37 AM