HP's Snoops Cast Spell "Track Reporter Emails," Leads to Doc Dump to Congress

Hewlett Packard's snoops-for-hire snuck web-surveillance software into a fake document it fed to CNet reporters, trailed HP directors and possibly a News.com reporter and did all of this under the supervision of HP's general counsel and its chief ethics officer, according to a report in the New York Times.

At least one reporter, Dawn Kawamoto of the online technology news service CNET, may have been followed as part of the 2006 investigation, said a person briefed on the investigation. Ms. Kawamoto was a co-author of an article on a senior management meeting in January.

The detectives also tried to plant software in the computer of an unspecified CNET reporter that would communicate back to the detectives, people briefed on the company review said. Ms. Kawamoto said in an interview this month that prosecutors had told her that such a ploy may have been used, but said she was not aware of any surveillance.

Representing themselves as an anonymous tipster, the detectives e-mailed a document to a CNET reporter, according to those briefed on the review. The e-mail was embedded with software that was supposed to trace who the document was forwarded to. The software did not work, however, and the reporter never wrote any story based on the bogus document.

On Saturday, the company identified one of two employees who it said had been a target of scrutiny in the internal operation. It said the private phone records of the employee, Michael Moeller, director of corporate media relations, were taken.

News just keeps getting worse for HP, which seems to be losing Hit Points by the day. A House subcommittee wants documents today, California's AG is saying that employees are going to get indicted, the U.S. Attorney's office is interested, and plaintiff firm
Lerach Coughlin is suing on behalf of shareholders. Still, isn't it kind of funny that one of the valley's largest computer company's can't even figure out how to get a webbug to work right? The company sure seems to be having a hard time with that darn 20-sided die. Photo: teclasorg