This HP story is getting crazier and crazier. Today, the NY Times is reporting that HP was thinking about planting spies in at least two publications to figure out what was going on. The idea was to either place undercover admin temps or cleaning crews at CNet and the SF office of the Wall Street Journal who would then do a bit of snooping and eavesdropping. Another memo uncovered mentioned planting HP spies next to certain people to tag along and snoop on them. Wasn't there an episode of "Alias" like that where Sydney Bristow dressed up like an Office Temp complete with iPod and back tattoo to shadow some reporter only to discover they were really their long lost second cousin removed who supposedly died in a fiery motorcycle accident but really used it as a ruse to escape the Chinese?

Another thing they tried was sending out e-mails with encrypted software that would track back and report to HP where that e-mail was forwarded. So, they'd send someone a vaguely alluring e-mail and see if it was sent off to someone in the media. This didn't work, or at least they think it didn't work, mainly because e-mails with the header "Please Forward: From Nigeria" don't work as well as they used to.

This comes after revelations that HP hired people to follow around various board members and reporters. They also planted false leaks, hired a Private Dick from Omaha, and used illegal means to get people's phone records.

But the craziest part of this story? Congress is investigating. Apparently things like data mining, eavesdropping, planting news reports, and all around bad behavior is illegal. Who knew?