Update: Lawmakers grill Dunn, Hurd over pretexting

CEO Hurd testifies he did not read a March report describing the use of pretexting

HP security investigator Fred Adler said he was not aware of any other times when HP has used pretexting, but he believes the HP has used e-mail tracing technology a "dozen to two dozen" times for internal investigation in the three years he's worked there.

Some subcommittee members said Congress needs to pass a new law making clear that the practice of pretexting is illegal. But several lawmakers suggested the practice is already illegal under a handful of federal laws as well as a California law prohibiting the use of false information to get customer information from utilities.

Members of the subcommittee asked how HP, long recognized as a corporate leader in protecting consumer privacy, could embrace questionable legal practices such as pretexting.

"It's pretending to be someone you're not, to get something you probably shouldn't have, to use in a way that's probably wrong," said Representative Joe Barton, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Barton asked Dunn if she'd give him her phone records if he just called and asked for them without a subpoena.

"In your position, I would give you my phone records," Dunn said.

"Well, praise the Lord," Barton said to laughter in the audience. "I wouldn't give you mine."

Ann Baskins, who resigned earlier Thursday as HP's senior vice president and general counsel, and Kevin Hunsaker, the company's senior legal counsel, both asserted their rights not to testify under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution during the hearing.

Eight outside investigators who allegedly worked with HP to identify the board leaks also declined to testify.

HP also considered putting spyware on reporters' computers, digging through trash, and putting spies into the newsrooms of news organizations reporting board details, subcommittee members said.

The actions taken by HP were "not the act of one rogue employee," said Representative Jay Inslee, a Democrat from Washington state, indicating that at least some of the politicians might not accept the characterization of the events at HP that its chief is set to offer before the subcommittee. In a written version of his testimony made available earlier, President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd called the scandal the result of a "rogue investigation."

Inslee and Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have co-authored legislation that would prohibit the obtaining of customer information from telecommunications carriers by false pretenses, and the sale or disclosure of such records obtained by false pretenses. Subcommittee Democrats questioned why the House hasn't voted on the bill, which the committee approved unanimously in early May.

In her opening remarks Blackburn, a Republican, called pretexting a purposeful effort to deceive and defraud in order to get information one is not entitled to have. "How prevalent is it in the corporate boardroom?" she asked.