Hewlett - PackardCEO and President Mark Hurd Friday reassert that he approved a probe of HP employee , board member , and journalists in an effort to recover out who on the HP board was leaking secret information outside of the troupe .
However , Hurd said he did not O.K. the placement of line applied science in an e - mail to a journalist , and apologized for this and any other “ inappropriate ” tactics — such as physical surveillance and obtain phone record under false pretending , make love as “ pretexting”—that HP undertake in its probe to find the source of information leak .
“ I extend my solemn excuse to those diarist who were look into and to everyone who was impacted , ” Hurd said . “ The incompatible techniques that were utilise do not reflect the value of HP . … These are not indicative of how we carry on business at HP . ”
Hurd also say he accepted the surrender of Patricia Dunn from her position as chairman of the HP board and a manager , effective at once , and give thanks her for her eight age of service on HP ’s board . antecedently , Dunn was to stay on as a director of the board , but would step down as chairman in January . Hurd now takes on the office of chairwoman of HP ’s board .
HP also Friday appointed Bart M. Schwartz , a former U.S. prosecutor , as gameboard direction . His role will be to execute an independent follow-up of investigative methods and the company ’s Standards of Business Conduct processes , and to make future good word for implementing best practices . He will report to Hurd and HP Chief Financial Officer Bob Wayman .
Hurd pronounce that HP had the “ practiced intentions ” when it began the first of two phases of a probe into boardroom leaks , but say it “ turn in a direction we could not have anticipate ” and he take full answerability for what transpire .
“ I take this very severely and commit to getting to the bottom of this , ” he enounce . “ Our line of work is to fix this and get back to the caper of running the business . ”
Hurd did not field reporter questions at the press conference , at which HP searched attendees ’ bags and did not allow for video photographic camera . Hurd design to appear at an U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations discover about HP ’s investigation on Thursday , Sept. 28 . , and say he did not require questions on Friday to interfere with that testimonial .
Mike Holston , a partner with law of nature firm Morgan , Lewis & Bockius , also mouth at the press league on Friday . HP appointed the house , which reports directly to Hurd , on Sept. 8 to investigate the tactic used by HP and third - party tec in its investigation .
Holston say his firm has read more than 1 million page of text file about two inner HP investigations — called Kona 1 and Kona 2 — and is still in the unconscious process of place together the detail of what took place . He declined to identify by name the hoi polloi HP investigated .
However , Holston did confirm that HP worked with two third - company organizations — security system Outsourcing Services and Action Research Group — to enquire employees , display panel members and/or former control board members and their families , and diary keeper and their families . That investigation included forcible surveillance , obtain societal security numeral of those being investigated to obtain speech sound records and the placement of e - chain mail trace engineering in an e - ring mail to one diarist , he tell .
Friday ’s news program conference follow a steady stream of word reports over the last two weeks with revelations of activeness HP and its outside investigators allegedly take to discover the source of company leaks to the media .
Schemes allegedly deliberate included an attempt to plant spies inside the San Francisco newsrooms of The Wall Street Journal and CNET Networks posing as clerical workers or janitors , and a sting military operation in which a fake anon. source within HP would e - mail CNET newsman Dawn Kamamoto with a tip and track her e - mails to see if she contacted her other HP sources about the tip .
Holston said Friday that while there was grounds that HP consider starting underground surgical process in the newsrooms of the Journal and CNET , there is no grounds that such surgery ever took place .
He also confirmed that HP did sample to track one newsman ’s e - mail through delineate applied science , but did not name the newsman involved and said there was no grounds at this clock time that the HP investigation squad was aware that the tracer was activated .
