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HP CEO Allowed 'Sting' on CNet reporter
Mark writes "The Washington Post, reporting on Hewlett-Packard's Chairman Patricia Dunn and alleged spying on other HP board members, has obtained e-mails that implicate the CEO, Mark Hurd, who approved an elaborate 'sting' operation on a CNet reporter." From the article: HP's leak investigation involved planting false documents, following HP board members and journalists, watching their homes, and obtaining calling records for hundreds of phone numbers belonging to HP directors, journalists and their spouses, according to a consultant's report and the e-mails."
Fromt the article: "None of the e-mails reviewed by The Post were to or from Hurd, nor do they detail what information Hurd had when he approved the sting operation."
Just because he approved the action to sting the reporter, he didn't necessairily know what the means were.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
Dunn was/is a lame duck on the board. She has cancer and had no intentions of remaining as the chairman next year. Therefore, she knew what had to be done to stiffle the critics, i.e. friends of the Hewlett family. She succeeded in getting both of them off the board and now all is left is damage control with her taking the "fall". Gotta give her credit.
If you don't inquire into the details of what you've approved, it's either because you are: a) foolish, or b) don't want to be accountable.
If a CEO directs something sensitive to happen, it's their responsibility to be aware of what it is and how it happens.
If you want to to it the really n00b way: Place a link to a spacer.gif image in the email, then look at who accessed the image from your logs. You can even be script-kiddie clever by using a script disguised as an image to record all sorts of good information, like IP, browser, etc.
And yes, spammers use this to see if someone accessed their emails.
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Click here, you know you wanna!
If this happens, though, use of "gate" as a suffix is strictly forbidden, because that's just silly.
I think they've been following that rule for a while now. Notice how there's been no "investigate" for a long time...
This guy's the limit!
The reporter was sending out an SOS to the world, because not every little thing the CEO did was magic.
Oh . . . wait . . .
This whole thing came about due to general bashing of the rights of individual, the concept of spying is trying to justify itself and integrate into the culture and psyche. The value of the individual is being eroded daily. The Soviet constution provided all the rights that Americans have. Except there was a clause that these rights can be suspended in some cases "for the good of the state". If you read the Declaration of Independence you will see that the founding fathers believed in the rights of the individual over some lofty pseduo utopian ideal of advancing the state. Governments are instituted for the protection of the rights of people (thats what it says in the consitution).
.. these are the same folks that would have said the 4th amendment is useless. They would have argued strongly against the 6th amendment, and would have laughed at the concept of the 8th amendment. Yet these are the same people passing themselves off as patriots today.
.. but I am not .. my point is that the general sentiment of folks seems to have twisted from rights of an individual towards the goal of advancing the state towards some utopia. And that is why you have people thinking it's OK to spy on possibly innocent people.
The people you have running around today justifying spying
There are folks walking around waving the US flag, and yet they dont believe that all humans are created equal and have inalienable rights. The very concept that founded the country! The nation was formed under war. Redcoat spies and traitors everywhere yet even in those troubled times they instituted the Bill of Rights.
If you listen to the fake patriots speech their philosophies imply that instituting the Bill of Rights back then in the nations infancy would have brought about the demise of the US. Yet the USA prevailed, liberty wins out in the end. They pass off some lie that torture can prevent an attack. But what about the innocent people you torture to prevent an attack?
It may seem that I am offtopic here
Because big business hasn't even got the thin veil of legitimacy "the mandate of the people" gives goverments. IIRC, a company or PLC has the same rights and obligations under the law as any other individual/legal entity.
Let the companies get away with it and it becomes a free-for-all privacy nightmare.
Resistance is futile. Reactance buggers it up.
"I'm having some difficulty seeing precisely where it is illegal."
Let me call up your cell phone company, claim I'm you (because I've managed to get your SSN), and then get all your call records.
Then, I'll send you a trojan horse to your computer so I can record your keystrokes to see who and and what you're mailing.
Are you okay with everything so far? Does that seem all legal and above-board?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Ok, for the sake of argument, let's assume that you would stop short of approving the murder of the leaker(s). Just how far, short of that, would you still feel good about: knee-capping, breaking the bones in one's hand with a hammer, kidnapping a family member, burning down their house, torturing their cat, etc.?
Remember, you are protecting trade secrets here and the value of your HP stock is at stake.
I hope you think this is absurd but your comment is stupid. It is not the board's job to break the law and it is not within their purview to do anything necessary to protect the stock.
What boggles my mind is that you're currently moderated as funny, not the +1 eerie we're all feeling about this.
Companies illegally spying on people is something straight out of a cyberpunk novel or something. It scares the crap outta me, because if nobody gets into actual legal trouble over this, the next time a company does it, people will just start going "Oh, that old thing", and turn the channel.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.