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The scandal at Silicon Valley icon HP over the use of identity theft-like "pretexting" to investigate leaks from the company's board of directors continues to widen.

The Los Angeles Times reported today that "HP Said to Have Spied on Lawyer-- Phone records of Larry Sonsini were accessed in the boardroom leak probe, a source says."

The Times article says that:

"HP spokesman Ryan J. Donovan…said the company had turned over to the House Energy and Commerce Committee information about how the company obtained the private phone records. Company executives and Sonsini have been asked to testify Sept. 28 at a subcommittee hearing."

CNET News.com, whose reporter Dawn Kawamoto was allegedly sent e-mails by HP's outside investigators in the course of their work on this case, published a piece today entitled "Update on HP 'pretexting': E-mails scanned; legality questioned," in which they report that:

"California Attorney General Bill Lockyer may decide as early as this week whether to indict anyone in the HP scandal…"

"Fred Adler, an official in HP's global security office in Roseville, Calif., had warned his superiors in e-mail that pretexting could be illegal."

HP had turned over certain documents regarding its leak investigation to the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, which has requested the presence and testimony at a September 28, 2006, hearing of HP Chairman Patricia Dunn and General Counsel Ann Baskins, as well as lawyer Larry Sonsini and outside investigator Ronald DeLia.

Two key, so-far unanswered questions in this scandal are: "Did the private investigators working for HP use the Social Security numbers of targeted board members and HP employees in the course of misrepresenting themselves to Verizon and AT&T in order to illegally acquire relevant phone records?" and, if so, "Where did the private investigators get those Social Security numbers?"

Whoever allegedly provided these numbers will no doubt bear some essential legal liability in the case now being prepared by California Attorney General Lockyer and, possibly, if there is a federal prosecution, by the U.S. Department of Justice through the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The role of these Social Security numbers has come up in several previous reports on this case.

In a September 15, 2006, BusinessWeekonline article by Lorraine Woellert entitled "Verizon Caught in HP Pretexting Web--The privacy of Verizon customers' phone records was compromised, putting a top company exec—and Hewlett-Packard board member—in a tough spot," it's reported that:

"SECOND TELECOM AFFECTED. Pretexters—also known in the vernacular as 'phone phreakers' or 'social engineers'—misrepresent their identities to convince the telecom system to cough up confidential information about phone customers. In the Hewlett-Packard case, tech-savvy gumshoes used Social Security numbers [bolding added] and other information to bluff their way into obtaining the confidential records of phone company customers. Among the individuals targeted were HP directors and employees, plus nine journalists who reported on the company—including three BusinessWeek writers (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/8/06, "BW Writers Targeted by HP").

In a September 14, 2006, article by Jordan Robertson of the Associated Press, published in the San Jose-based Mercury News entitled "AG: Boston-area firm to be searched in HP pretexting probe," it's reported that:

"On Tuesday, the company announced [HP Chairman of the Board Patricia] Dunn would step down in January and be replaced by [HP President and CEO Mark] Hurd. Dunn has admitted authorizing the investigation into who was leaking boardroom secrets to reporters, but said she was appalled that private investigators hired by the company used Social Security numbers to impersonate HP directors and reporters, then persuaded phone companies to turn over detailed logs of their home phone calls.

In another September 14, 2006, article on this scandal, this one by Matt Richtel and Damon Darlin, entitled "Tiny Firm’s H.P. Link Scrutinized," the New York Times reports that:

"State investigators have not said if there were any other middlemen involved. Several private investigators said one reason to think Security Outsourcing had help was that whoever did the actual work of obtaining the phone records of the H.P. board members and journalists had their Social Security numbers [bolding added].

As discussed in an interview with Tom Dresslar, spokesperson for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, in a September 11, 2006, Etopia News article entitled "Spokesperson for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer comments on HP "pretexting" case, says 'we believe that crimes have been committed,' specifically, identity theft," the source of Social Security numbers allegedly used to illegally access confidential phone records might not have been insiders at HP, since, as Mr. Dresslar says, such information is "unfortunately" more widely-available than one might hope.

After a second phone request to HP's office of Corporate Media Relations, Etopia News this afternoon received a formal refusal to comment on the alleged provision to investigators of Social Security numbers belonging to HP board members or employees from Ryan J. Donovan, HP corporate spokesperson.

In a terse e-mail, Mr. Donovan told Etopia News and its reader/listener/viewers:

"Thanks for your inquiries. We are declining to comment on your question and cannot accommodate an interview request."

Just like Fox News,, Etopia News reports, you decide, in this case if HP's refusal to comment on whether or not it provided the investigators it hired with the Social Security numbers no doubt on file in its records, and possibly used to allegedly illegally spy on board members, indicates that it knowingly broke the law in an effort to plug media leaks from the board.