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HP Spy Pleas Guilty To Charges
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-01-12
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Colorado private investigator Bryan Wagner used pretexting tactics to gain access to personal phone records of members of the Hewlett Packard board as part of tracking down who leaked information to reporters about the company.
 | | HP Spy Pleas Guilty To Charges |  |
The HP spying scandal enveloped the top of the computer company's leadership, bringing down its chair, Patricia Dunn, and reaching as far up as Congress in evoking outrage over the methods used to compromise the privacy of several people entwined in the investigation.
Wagner has, in the parlance of the gangsters of old, been singing like a canary to federal investigators for the past several months. A report at SiliconValley.com said Wagner would benefit from a plea agreement that should see him serve minimal jail time on conspiracy and aggravated identity theft charges.
For his part, Wagner has been portrayed as a small fish in a much bigger pond, and just did a job that he had been assured was within legal limits. That job included getting the phone records belonging to a reporter as part of HP's broader search for their leaker.
Someone provided Wagner with that reporter's Social Security number. From there the trail led to George Keyworth, the board director who had been the insider source.
Court documents showed Wagner set up online access to the reporter's account and used an email address of mike@yahoo.com as the identity for it. Sometime around March 8, 2006, Wagner allegedly obtained the phone records and turned them over to unnamed co-conspirators.
Although the spying scandal has been immensely damaging to HP's reputation, customers and investors appear relatively unconcerned based on HP's revenues and ongoing business. The company's stock has increased around $12 per share over the past year.
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Tags: Hewlett Packard, Bryan Wagner
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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