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HP Spy Scandal Hits New Weirdness Level

The old weirdness level just wasn't cutting it.

Not only did investigators impersonate board members, employees and journalists to obtain their phone records, but according to multiple reports, they also surveilled an HP director and a reporter for CNet Networks Inc. They sent monitoring spyware in an e-mail to that reporter by concocting a phony story tip.

They even snooped on the phone records of former CEO and Chairwoman Carly Fiorina, who had launched the quest to identify media sources in the first place.

If they had only put that much time, effort and creativity into something more useful...say, running HP's business.

And in a twist that might seem preposterous if it happened in a movie, The New York Times reported that HP consultants considered hiring spies to pose as clerical or custodial workers at CNet and The Wall Street Journal.

Um...that did happen in a movie: Wall Street.

And they're right, it was preposterous.

What if those consultants were really spies from Dell who were secretly trying to sabotage HP? How cool would that be?

Honestly, I should be writing for 24.

Posted by edelfenbein at September 21, 2006 12:51 PM