Call the phone company. Claim to be a Hewlett-Packard director or employee or a news reporter. Ask for the phone records of the person you impersonate by providing a Social Security number, dubiously obtained.
This practice, known as pretexting, is perfectly legal, according to HP. Well, actually, what the computermaker said in a document recently filed with regulators was that it’s “not generally unlawful.”
HP’s legal counsel, Wilson Sonsini Good rich & Rosati, is a highly regarded Silicon Valley firm. HP’s executives and directors are wealthy and educated. And this is the language they come up with?
Not generally unlawful?
“The statement is wrong,” said Rob Douglas, an information security consultant based in Steamboat Springs. “Pretexting has become this nice word. But it’s identity theft.”
In February, Douglas went before Congress stumping for broader laws against pretexting, though it is already illegal under current law, he said.
“This is typical lawyer doublespeak,” Douglas said. “What it really means is that it’s not usually prosecuted.”
At least until now. This week, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said he has enough evidence to indict folks inside and outside HP. His spokesman said charges could be filed within a week.
Yet perhaps as long as there have been phones, companies have used pretexting.
They do it to see if a departed executive is living up to a noncompete clause or whether insiders are leaking trade secrets. Or simply to spy on competitors.
It’s dirty work, so companies often hire lawyers, who hire investigators, who hire subcontractors, who hire vendors – creating layers of deniability.
Hundreds of vendors are willing to illegally obtain phone records – all the while claiming their practices are legal.
This business thrived until Congress investigated the industry earlier this year.
In some cases, the phone records of law enforcement officers have been pretexted – a deadly situation for anyone working undercover. But too often pretexting is just a tool of corporate skullduggery.
HP’s boardroom has been a snake pit for years. Patricia Dunn, who took over as chairwoman after the ouster of CEO Carly Fiorina, became obsessed with learning which HP director was talking to the press. She eventually turned to outside legal counsel, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which hired investigators.
Unfortunately, Dunn wasn’t calculating enough to know how to use this information in a room full of corporate predators. If you ever possess illegally obtained data in such an environment, do not storm into a boardroom and declare: “Aha! I know who did it, and I have phone records to prove it.” Because the next question is, “Gee, lady, how’d you get phone records?”
Ethics aside, Dunn played her game so badly she deserves to be ousted. She has apologized and will step down as chairwoman in January. She also deserves to be prosecuted, along with everyone else involved in this moronic misadventure.
Former federal prosecutor Anthony Accetta, now a financial crimes investigator based in Denver, said it’s going to be tough for prosecutors to bring the charges they promised at HP.
“Everybody is going to deny that they knew there was pretexting. They’ll say that when they found out there was pretexting, they were ‘Shocked! I tell you. Shocked!’ It’s straight out of ‘Casablanca.’ … Nobody at HP will ever face any charges. I guarantee it.”
Another defense will be that pretexting is common. But there comes a time for even common crimes to be prosecuted.
When New York Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer charged Wall Street firms for hyping stocks in research reports, the defense was: Everybody does it.
The same is true of pretexting. But in a world filled with identity theft and digital fraud, it’s time to stop. One way to discourage this practice would be to make examples of Dunn, HP’s CEO and general counsel, HP’s outside legal counsel, and their creepy little vendors.
I hope California’s AG nails all of them.
Even if they eventually get off, I want to see them sweat millions of dollars fighting the charges. And I am certain that it’s “not generally unlawful” for me to say so.
Al Lewis’ column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Respond to Lewis at denverpostbloghouse.com/lewis, 303-954-1967 or alewis@denverpost.com.
