Mike Holston, an attorney with Morgan Lewis, a law firm retained by HP on Sept. 8 to investigate what transpired, and who was involved in the leak probe, says his investigation supports Hurd's recollections.

Citing his upcoming testimony before a Congressional Committee on Thursday, Sept. 28, Hurd declined to take any questions.

"I'm confident we have a good understanding of what transpired around the investigation. Some of the findings are very disturbing to me," said Hurd. "I extend my sincere apologies to those journalists investigated, and everyone impacted. HP has a distinguished history of uncompromising integrity. This is not indicative of how we conduct business at HP."

Hurd went on to say he believes that the illicit investigative tactics that were used were "isolated incidents," and that they cannot be allowed to occur in the company again.

Holston, who also spoke at the press conference, said there were two phases of the HP leak investigation. The first phase, which began early in 2005, concluded late that summer without uncovering the source of the leaks. Then, after a Jan. 23, 2006 story came out in the press, the second phase of the investigation began.

Holston said that HP hired Boston-based Security Outsourcing Solutions to help in the investigation. In conjunction, they:

* Obtained the telephone records of two current employees, seven board members and their families, along with nine journalists by pretexting, which means an investigator pretended to be someone else in order to con a utility into handing out the personal information;

* Used the social security numbers of one HP employee, three board members and four journalists to obtain phone records. Holston says it is not clear at this point what company employees were involved in gathering and handing out the social security numbers;

* Created a fictitious email account, a fictitious persona of a disgruntled senior HP executive and an email message loaded with a 'tracer' in an attachment. Investigators were reportedly hoping the email recipient would forward it on to whoever was the board leak and the tracer would send that person's identity back. Holston says there was no confirmation that the tracer was ever activated;

* Conducted surveillance on a particular board meeting to see if there was a journalist outside, on an HP board member on a trip to Boulder, Colo. to be a keynote speaker at a conference, on the same board member and his family at their California home, and on a journalist at her residence.

These actions have fueled state, federal and Congressional investigations. Prosecutors from the California Attorney General's Office and from the U.S. Attorney's Office are investigating the pretexting incidents. In addition, Hurd and Dunn will testify before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday, Sept. 28.