How can someone working at that level not know about the standard procedures that companies follow in those circumstances??

It's a 'shake your head in amazement' situation. Maybe he can plead insanity?

The amount of hours I've spent watching DVD's & on line training, about internal security, must run into about a Man-week, or more. Top marks to HP for self reported themselves & sacking the thief, A.S.A.P.

I hardly imagine that any large player in the industry is unaware for what the new IBM supercomputer is going to be used and what whichever secret service in charge of instituting the new spyware laws is going to be doing with everyone's insides.

What with the latest submarines designed to couple up to glass filaments 1000 leagues under the sea...

Old fashioned P2P encrypted 128 whatevers are not going to hold up the Internets very long.

It wasn't self reporting - it was damage control. Had the Ex-VP passed along the information in a more traditional, cloak-and-dagger style manner (i.e. untraceable) then HP would have never said anything. However he chose to use email, which is a stupid, stupid thing to do as there is tons of accountability. Industrial espionage is big business, and most big businesses participate - the trick is to not get caught.

amanfrommars or maybe a psuedonym of the same? as I got no idea WTF either of them go on about, and one wonders what they have been smoking/chewing/injecting.

Back on the topic, 250k plus prison is on helluva tax on two e-mails isn't it? I bet he wont do that again in a hurry.

Nice to see that their top executives have a sense of ethics (unlike certain previous ones).

"Industrial espionage is big business, and most big businesses participate - the trick is to not get caught."

You are confused. The trick is to implement sharp business practices while not going so far as to give someone a reason to have your ass hauled before a jury. People casually unable to distinguish between the two are psychopaths in suits and should be let go ASAP.

Billou icon because he's unsure about plausibly deniable sharp practices.

Ha. Wouldn't that be nice if it worked that way. Unfortunately a bit of information slipped from someone inside the competition has been at the heart of successful business since people were trading seashells for wives. Espionage is part of business - some organizations call it competitive analytics or other sourced intelligence, but it's still spying.

Believe it or not but we actually have to take (and pass ) a training course that details what to do in this situation and what to do if someone passes information to you.

HP take this kind of issue really seriously.

If there was only one secret passed along, maybe.

But I thought you got one count for EACH "IP" protected entity you "shared".

I guess that doesn't work at executive level.

Or, apparently, the scions of such execs:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061204-8352.html

I was once ordered to attend a lecture by a senior manager on ethics and good business practice. Top on the agenda (mailed to all attendees) was punctuality when called to a meeting.

The presenter arrived 20 minutes late, gave no appology and launched into a tirade about how everyone wearing sneakers was "disrespecting" her by dressing unprofessionally.

I've come to the conclusion that the people heading up businesses think those NDAs and Contracts of Employment we all sign only really apply to the plebs doing the work and not at all to those "in charge".

I would tell you the place where this all happened, but I already signed a piece of paper to say I wouldn't.

HP really loved to get hold of confidential pricing information. Then, make the VP scapegoat.

The HP statement never says that "we undid (our pricing etc.) whatever we did with that IBM confidential pricing information".

Paris knows what it feels like to be used and thrown away like condom.