HP

Hewlett-Packard Senior Vice President Prith Banerjee, who for five years headed the corporation's vast research and development organization, HP Labs, will be leaving the company effective April 15, according to an internal document distributed by CEO Meg Whitman. HP hasn't made an announcement of Banerjee's departure.

Banerjee is leaving for a position that will be based outside the U.S. with another organization, but that organization’s identity couldn’t immediately be learned.

Hewlett-Packard on Friday issued an urgent support notification to registered HP LaserJet printer owners warning of a vulnerability that could allow hackers unauthorized access to 50 product lines.

HP said in an email that no reports have been made of the affected printers being accessed through the vulnerability, but pointed owners of LaserJet-branded printers to a list of affected products and instructions for fixing the bug on its tech support site.

HP Australia has revealed plans to build up a new security consulting team within its Enterprise Services division as part of a regrouping of security resources in that part of its business.

The company has placed advertisements for a 'client security officer lead' to head the team. Among desired credentials are government expertise and Australian security clearance.

Did you happen to pick up a HP TouchPad, but wish you'd been among the select few with the gadget running Android instead? Since the accidental Android drama, HP has decided to release the kernel and General Public License (GPL) for its tablet, much to the joy of the hacking community.

There's a serious security vulnerability on some HP LaserJet printers.

The good news is that it's been patched. The bad news is that you don't know if your HP LaserJet printer needs the fix - because HP hasn't told you.

A lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard alleges that the company sold LaserJet printers that it knew had a security flaw in them that could allow hackers to steal data, take control of networks and even cause physical damage to printers through overheating.

Researchers at Columbia University in New York have discovered a vulnerability in Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printers that could allow attackers to steal sensitive documents, gain control of corporate networks, or even set the affected device on fire.

This can be accomplished because some HP LaserJet printers do not validate the origin of remote firmware updates before applying them, Salvatore Stolfo, a professor of computer science at Columbia who directed the research, told SCMagazineUS.com on Tuesday. That means anyone can reprogram the devices with malicious firmware.

Millions of HP LaserJet printers contain a security weakness that could allow attackers to take control of the systems, steal data from them and issue commands that could cause the devices to overheat and catch fire.

Printers from other vendors likely have the same issue, leaving users of those devices exposed to similar threats, two reserachers from Columbia University said.

In their first e-mail to Hewlett-Packard employees following Meg Whitman's appointment as the company's new chief executive officer, Whitman and Executive Chairman Ray Lane call on staffers to offer up their best work and focus on execution.

HP will shuffle webOS into a new division to avoid losing it along with the company's hardware business, according to internal memos that surfaced over the weekend on PreCentral. The hardware division will remain under the company's Personal Systems Group, while the software side, which includes webOS, will split off and move to HP's Office of Strategy and Technology.