HP Identity Theft Scandal Reveals Spyware and Imposter Tactics

As follow up to our recent HP article, we've learned even
more disturbing and deceptive business practices were
used or considered by senior officials in the HP identity
theft scandal still publicly unfolding in the wake of
several governmental investigations underway.

One of the more disturbing tactics, especially alarming for
a technology company, was the actual consideration of sending
spyware embedded email. It seems, there was a plan to utilize
spyware within an email that would've been sent to
Cnet & Wall Stree Journal reporters in the hopes HP's
investigators would learn the source of the boardroom leak.

"Fight spyware threats

HP has identified specific threats which may affect
your computer. The information provided will assist
you with removing and reducing these threats.

HP partners with Symantec to provide Norton Internet
Security 2006 for the detection and removal of Adware
and Spyware from your computer."

Even more bizarre, was the consideration of another plan which
would have involved the "planting" of operatives posing as
clerks or cleaning staff within the Wall Street Journal & Cnet
offices to gather or collect any evidence of the HP boardroom
leak source.

Harkening back to the last days of President Nixon's regime
and the Watergate scandal which lead to his demise, we again
see similar motives, tactics, spin, & denials emerging
from this HP identity theft exposure.

Let's identify each of them separately:

Motives: Power, Arrogance, & Control within the Boardroom

Tactics: Privacy invasion, Deceptive & Illegal Investigation Methods

Spin: Blame underlings (remember Enron) & Ignorance of illegalities

Denials: Claim Innocence in the face of obvious facts

All of these ingredients, while adding up to evidence of un-checked
boardroom ethics, point out an even more obvious truth which will
unfold as investigations move forward from the California
Attorney General, the FBI, Congress and even the Securities
and Exchange Commission.

That is, consumer privacy was certainly invaded and according to
the California Attorney General several felony crimes were too:

• Identity Theft
• Fraudulent Wire communications
• Wrongful use of computer data &
• Conspiracy to Commit These Crimes

The defendants are accused of false and fraudulent
pretenses to obtain confidential information
from a phone company, including billing records, belonging
to 12 people. If convicted, the five could each face as
much as 12 years in state prison and $65,000 in fines.

Continuing with her stance, as an corporate identity thief, the
former HP chairperson (Dunn) is now actively practicing the
"spin" phase of this scandal as she will claim on this Sunday's
60 Minutes interview:

"Dunn says she is innocent of the charges.."

"Every company has investigations. Investigations,
by their nature, are intrusive."

There you have it folks. An admission by an accused corporate
identity thief which suggests just because everyone is
doing it that it (the act of identity theft) is somehow
justified.

We are quoting the admissions, not of some common street criminal
stealing medical records from a dumpster nor a mid level manager
conveniently "losing" a laptop containing the employee records
from a small business.

We are talking about Hewlett Packard (HP), a titan in the American
computer industry worth billions of dollars annually in sales.

And yet, it seems the corporate boardroom brand of identity theft
is seemingly no different than any other common criminal story
we've exposed this year.

"One of the senior HP officials charged even provided
the social security number of an employee to a 3rd
party investigator as part of this witch hunt to find
the board room leak."

The personal privacy and confidential information of innocent
Americans were violated.

Want to protect yourself against out of control identity
thieves who will simply will not stop in their quest to
abuse your personal privacy?

Our tip for today is to stop those who would use phone
pretexting methods to fraudulently gain access to
your cell phone records.

Call your wireless phone company and demand they institute a
secondary password only you would know for your account
access. Also, make sure to request your name and personal
information is made "opt out" to prevent it from being
shared with 3rd parties without your knowledge
or consent.