HP pushes envelope with media spy plan

All great spy dramas have sequels. The Hewlett-Packard scandal is no exception. Now, we hear the company considered planting operatives in newsrooms, posing as clerical workers or cleaning crew, to sniff out leaks to the press. That plan had fatal flaws. For example, the person leaking the information would be on the other end of the phone, not in the newsroom itself. HP probably figured its spies would glean enough from the reporter’s end of the conversation.