HP spy scandal: How low did they go? (A continuing saga)

Planting spyware on a journalist’s PC? Low, certainly, but this elevator’s still plummeting. According to this morning’s New York Times, HP actually considered, well, here’s the lead: “Hewlett-Packard conducted feasibility studies on planting spies in news bureaus of two major publications as part of an investigation of leaks from its board, an individual briefed on the company’s review of the operation said yesterday. “The studies, referred to in a Feb. 2 draft report for a briefing of senior management, are said to have included the possibility of placing investigators acting as clerical employees or cleaning crews in the San Francisco offices of CNET and The Wall Street Journal. “It is not clear whether the plan described in the documents, which were read to a reporter, was ever acted upon.” That someone would actually hatch such a cockamamie plan is moronic enough; Hall-of-Fame moronic. But words simply cannot do justice to the lunacy of putting such a caper on paper.