HP's standards were disregarded, says Hurd

In a testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer Mark Hurd said that HP’s " adherence to standards of ethics, privacy and corporate responsibility" were "were disregarded by people inside the company and by people outside the company whom [HP] hired."

According to Hurd, the people investigating the board leaks to media "became so focused on finding the source of the leaks that they lost sight of the privacy of reporters and others."

"They lost sight of the values that this company has always represented," the executive said. He mentioned that the company will "provide to the victims the details regarding the information obtained about them, the means by which it was obtained and when it was obtained."

Following the scandal, HP’s chairman Patricia Dunn as well as general counsel Ann Baskins and "other employees" resigned. Hurd confirmed that the company has appointed a new lead independent director as well as Bart Schwartz, the former head of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office under Rudy Giuliani, to "do an assessment of current practices and develop future best practices so that our processes will be without peer."

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