enron

Reports show HP was right to dump Hurd

commentary Mark Hurd is now a Silicon Valley symbol for self-destructive behavior.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine published detailed reports on what prompted the HP board to ask then-CEO Hurd to resign in August. The stories paint a picture of a reckless man who was given the trust and support of HP's board only to repay that trust with betrayal.

The reports should finally silence the critics who slammed HP's board after Hurd was forced out of HP, after five years as CEO. Up to now, we knew few details about what led up … Read more

How smart IT workers know when their company's doomed

Some intellectuals want to study humanity. Others just want to study humanity's e-mails.

Which can, sometimes, be more fascinating than the people who wrote them.

A couple of researchers at the Florida Institute of Technology seem to be in the e-mail study camp. Or perhaps there was simply nothing better to think about in Melbourne, Fla., recently.

In any case, they took it upon themselves to examine the e-mails sent at Enron, specifically, how the e-mailing patterns changed as Enron was revealed to be channeling the spirit of Bernie Madoff, rather than Bernie Mac or Bernie Kosar.

The researchers, … Read more

Data-mining detects the disaffected

Here's another reason to get off that antisocial kick and get with the networking.

The Air Force is developing a data-mining technology meant to root out disaffected insiders based on their e-mail activity--or lack thereof, according to an article in this month's International Journal of Security and Networks.

The technology, based on something called Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (PDF), scours an organization's e-mail traffic and constructs a graph of social network interactions illustrating employee activity. If a worker suddenly stops socializing online, abruptly shifts alliances within the organization, or starts developing an unhealthy interest in "sensitive … Read more

Say sayonara to Silicon Valley's enemy No. 1

He once ranked among the most feared members of the legal profession. Now he's about to become a jailbird.

The disgraced attorney Bill Lerach on Monday was sentenced to two years in prison for his involvement in a kickback scheme involving class action lawsuits. As part of the deal, he agreed to forfeit $7.75 million in unlawful gains.

So closes the books on one of the more controversial bit players in Silicon Valley's history--at least in this incarnation. Americans love second acts, so who knows? Maybe after getting out of stir, Lerach will reinvent himself. But I'… Read more