'I, Too, Was Pretexted'

At last week's hearings into HPGate, former company chairwoman Patricia Dunn pointed out that she, along with most of HP's board, was a subject of the company's leak investigation. "I, too, was pretexted," she told the House subcommittee looking into the Hewlett-Packard fiasco.

The early goings-on last Thursday held more than a passing resemblance to the Mafia hearings depicted in "The Godfather II" (or simply "two," as the Sopranos would say.)

A phalanx of interested parties including now-former chief counsel Ann Baskin and assorted private investigators showed up, refused to give opening statements and invoked the Fifth Amendment.

It's a fine day for capitalism when assembled captains of industry look like the cast of "The Valachi Papers."

Dunn pretty much gave the lie to contentions that HP CEO and now Chairman Mark Hurd was unaware of what was going on with the company's security efforts.

"The investigation could not go forward without his approval," said Dunn. Hurd has already told reporters that he should have, but did not, read reports on the intelligence-gathering modes.

Two huge issues emerge from this mishegaas.

First, given what you now know about HP, would you want it to have your credit card number, or any other private information about you? I didn't think so.

Second, Ms. Dunn said that HP is not alone in these investigatory tactics. Her take: Everybody does it.

Many in the media have long suspected tech titans of such snooping. One former exec from a formerly high-flying Silicon Valley software company once said to beware his CEO who, the veep warned, would "run over his own grandmother" if he thought she was a leak.

Some reporters won't call key sources from known phone numbers or contact them at all at work. This was standard operating procedure for the very paranoid but now seems like plain ol' common sense.

In the final analysis, it's a good thing that HP pooh-bahs ratted each other out. If it weren't for former HP director Tom Perkins—who was so incensed at fat cats turning on fat cats that he blew the whistle—we still would not know for sure that these undercover tactics occur.

For that, and little else, we should thank him.

Got a tip or comment? Get back to me at (781) 839-1223 or via e-mail at [email protected]. (If you dare.)