HP chief shares what he knows, results of outside investigation and makes himself available to federal investigators.
HP CEO and President Mark Hurd Friday told reporters that he did not have full knowledge of any possible illegal activities taken by third-party investigators on behalf of HP to uncover the source of boardroom leaks.
Amid reports in the press that he was not only aware of but approved any actions taken, Hurd Friday laid out the facts as he presently knew them, with the caveat that “I still cannot guarantee that we can obtain all the information” pertaining to the investigation.
“I feel very strongly that leaks hurt the company’s reputation and its ability to operate effectively. At the start of the investigation, the intent was proper and appropriate,” Hurd said. “This investigation has gone in a direction we could not have anticipated, and the people of HP don’t deserve this nor do any of the people that were impacted.”
Hurd said that while he did receive a written report of the investigation, he did not read it “when I could have and I should have.” Hurd refused to take questions at the press conference as he has offered to appear at the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing on Thursday, Sept. 28.
During the press conference, Hurd also invited Mike Holston, from law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius retained on Sept. 8 and now handling all federal and state inquiries, to share his firm’s findings after going through about 1 million pages of documents from internal HP sources as well as third parties that worked with HP in the leak investigation.
“Now that we know the depth of what has transpired, I take full accountability to get it right,” Hurd said. “Our job is to fix this and get back to the job of running our business.”
Holston said the findings reveal that third-party investigators employed activities — including pretexting, e-mail tracing, physical surveillance and obtaining social security numbers to get phone numbers for the purpose of pretexting — to uncover evidence in the leak investigation. Holston said while Hurd had been aware of some actions taken — such as the concept of a false e-mail account and the content of the e-mail to trace a potential leak through a journalist — the firm had found no evidence that Hurd approved the software tracer technology on the journalist’s e-mail.
“At this stage of the investigation [we have learned that] the concept of e-mail and content of misinformation in the e-mail was approved by Mark Hurd,” Holston said, adding that Hurd did not approve the trace of the person.
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. Holston also said the firm has found no evidence than an HP employee had knowledge or authorized such activity. The firm also has discovered no evidence of wiretapping or of keystroke logging techniques being used. Holston said his firm’s investigation is ongoing.
Hurd also accepted the immediate resignation of Patricia Dunn, thanking her for 8 years of service to the company.
Earlier this month HP announced that Dunn, who ordered an investigation into leaks of company information to the media, would step down as chairman following the company’s Jan. 18 board meeting. HP said Hurd would succeed Dunn as chairman, while Dunn will remain on the board as a director, HP said.
Board member George Keyworth, who admitted to supplying information to the media, resigned effective immediately. His resignation follows the resignation in May of board member Tom Perkins, who stepped down in protest over the way the investigation was being handled.
The IDG News Service contributed to this report.
