Corporate Responsibility Magazine has named HP the 2010 best corporate citizen in government contracting. The 11th annual assessment takes into account more than 300 publicly-available data points among a broad spectrum of issues, and HP ranked among the top three in the domains of environmental performance, corporate governance and philanthropy.

HP also ranked in the top 20 in climate change, human rights and employee relations—a strong performance considering the assessment included the largest companies listed in the Russell 1000 index.

The magazine notes that performing well in the rankings is dependent upon a culture of transparency and accountability: “The Best Corporate Citizens in Government Contracting List proves that transparency pays,” notes CR Magazine editor-in-chief, Dirk Olin, adding that “Companies that are the most transparent about their corporate responsibility practices outperformed the S&P 500 in 3-year return by 7 percentage points.”

HP recognizes that meeting the unique challenges of the public sector depends on a strong partnership, and the company aims to help each agency it works with to fulfill its missions. Moreover, the company has long made demands of itself and its partners to meet strong environmental and human rights goals.

HP was previously named the Greenest Company in America by Newsweek, and this combination of honors highlights the company’s commitment to global citizenship.

Today, the two winning ideas were announced for Ireland’s “Your Country Your Call” program, a country-wide innovation competition designed to help grow the Irish economy and create jobs.

The winners and their ideas are:

Neil Leyden: Creating an International Digital Services Centre

Cianan Clancy & Colm MacFhlannachadha: The Data Island Strategy

The initiative brought together an entire nation of innovators through online crowdsourcing.  HP supported the program by providing both technology and expertise.

The competition was launched in February, and over 9,000 proposals were submitted.  Both winning proposals will go into development and implementation, with each supported by an advisory group and €500,000 in funding.  Each of the winners themselves will also receive a cash prize of €100,000.

HP’s support for this competition is part of the company’s Social Innovation program, which provides funding and expertise in the areas of health, education and entrepreneurship.

On September 16, President Obama launched "Change the Equation," a partnership with HP and other members of the business community to seek new ways to keep American students competitive in a technology centered future.

"Our success as a nation depends on  strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of discovery and innovation," said President Obama. "I applaud HP and its partners for lending their resources, expertise, and their enthusiasm to the task of strengthening America’s leadership in the 21st century by improving education in science, technology, engineering and math."

STEM education forms the building blocks of innovation, ultimately leading to entrepreneurship and catalyzing key industries, such as health IT and alternative energy. When you combine the history of American innovation with the obvious need for technical expertise today and tomorrow, HP believes it becomes clear that the nation has the resources to lead in this capacity.

See below for the White House video describing the goals and full press release:

While many companies have allowed employees to access popular social media sites through their corporate networks as a way to strengthen key business relationships, this increased connectivity also presents a new set of challenges to the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data.

New research from HP TippingPoint DVLabs published today shows that this convergence of personal and business technologies is opening government and corporate networks up to an unprecedented set of attacks:

- Over 80% of network attacks target Web-based systems (either server or client-side)

- Attacks targeted at web applications like browsers and Flash tripled over the past 6 months

The conclusions in the report are based on live field data from HP intrusion prevention systems, which are deployed in the networks of many of the world’s top corporations and government agencies.

In the research itself, the authors go out of their way to note that HP TippingPoint “is not an advocate for making technology more difficult” and make straightforward arguments in favor of mitigation strategies that address each of four key trends:

1.  Increased consumerization of enterprise computing (see leading security expert Bruce Schneier’s Septemer 2010 blog post  “Consumerization and Corporate IT Security” for even more on this subject)

2.  Prolonged and persistent targeting of web applications

3.  Increased organization and sophistication of attackers

4.  Unrelenting presence of legacy threats

“The only way to deliver protection against these threats is through constant and continuous research,” says Mike Dausin, manager of Advanced Security Intelligence for HP TippingPoint DVLabs.  “By understanding the increased risk these applications pose to the corporate network, organizations can implement remediation strategies to ensure that business processes and data remain secure.”

The idea is that by raising awareness of risks, research is key to closing potential security holes while still allowing the company to experiment with new technologies and modes of connectivity that help grow modern businesses.

-- About the Study --

What is HP TippingPoint DVLabs?

TippingPoint was formerly part of 3COM, which was acquired by HP earlier this year.  HP TippingPoint DVLabs is a premier research organization for vulnerability analysis and discovery, ensuring clients have preemptive protection for vulnerabilities and zero day attacks. The team applies cutting-edge engineering, reverse engineering as well as critical analysis, to create comprehensive security filters that are automatically delivered to client’s intrusion prevention systems (IPS) through the Digital Vaccine® service.

Excerpt from the report's introduction, regarding social media:

…there are several thousand organizations that utilize Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and iTunes for promotion and brand awareness. While these technologies may offer a wealth of marketing recognition, they also open the door to a multitude of security risks. Another trend impacting enterprise IT department is an “anything goes” mentality that allows users to download and manage applications and programs of their choosing. While some of these applications may be fine, and may even boost productivity, an overwhelming majority of them are a significant liability to corporate networks.

How was the data collected?

Event data from hundreds of deployed HP TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) was analyzed to identify the attacks. Event data refers to attack information that is collected when a security exploit triggers a particular filter in the HP TippingPoint IPS.

The following sources also contributed to this report:

- SANS, an organization dedicated to security training and certification;

- Open Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB), an independent and open source database created by and for the community; and

- Qualys, which delivers on demand IT security risk and compliance management solutions, provided data generated from its vulnerability assessment and management products deployed in the field.

Apple today announced that their Airprint wireless printing for iPad, iPhone, & iPod touch is coming to users in November:

- HP's existing and upcoming ePrint enabled printers will be the only printers to support direct printing from iOS devices at launch.

- ePrint evolved from CloudPrint, an innovative technology created by HP Labs, the company's central research and development group.

- AirPrint automatically finds printers on local networks and can print text, photos and graphics to them wirelessly over Wi-Fi without the need to install drivers or download software.

- iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users will find an embedded print function within apps on their device and will be able to automatically find a printer on their network and print to it without the need to install drivers or download software.

- This news marks the first time a  printing company and a mobile device company are embedding direct printing into an operating system for the most simple and seamless wireless print experience. 

- The service will be available in November as a free software update with iOS 4.2. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch customers will be able to print wirelessly from select apps – no set up or downloads required. Customers will be able to automatically find a printer on their network and print to it with one touch.

Quote from Vyomesh Joshi, HP executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group:

"Making it easy for our customers to print anytime, anywhere, is a key priority for HP. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch customers are going to love how easy it is to print using our new range of ePrint printers, creating high-quality printed pages in an instant.”

More on ePrint:

"HP ePrint really works: emails and attachments printed from the cloud" - Engadget

In September, HP and Microsoft came to the aid of Dummerston Elementary School in Vermont after learning of a June break-in that resulted in the theft of 28 computers. HP replaced the stolen computers with 30 new HP laptops, five desktops and other equipment with a combined value of more than $30,000.

Larry Irving, HP’s Vice President for Global Government Affairs at HP, joined Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Dummerston School Principal Jo Carol Ratti to kick off the new year at the school.

HP and ArcSight Inc. today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for HP to acquire ArcSight, a leading security and compliance management company, for $43.50 per share, or an enterprise value of $1.5 billion.

Today’s successful enterprises must provide their employees, partners and customers with more access to applications, services and information. This access and connectivity exposes enterprises to escalating threats, increasing complexity and regulatory challenges.

Together, HP and ArcSight will be well-positioned to secure even the most demanding environments.

For more information:

- Read the rest of today's announcement

- Attend the investor conference call at 5:30am PT

- HP SEC filings

- Follow @hpnews on Twitter and Stocktwits

What is ArcSight?

ArcSight is a leading global provider of cybersecurity and compliance solutions that protect organizations from enterprise threats and risks.

UPDATE: Remarks from investor call

Bill Veghte, EVP of HP Software & Solutions, joined investors at 5:30am PT to discuss the proposed acquisition.  Highlights attributabe to Veghte are below; the full transcript is available on at our investor relations website.

"At the most basic level, this announcement signals HP’s intent to be a leader in providing solutions for enterprises that improve their security, reduce their risk and help them stay compliant at lower cost."

"The security market is large and is growing at double-digit levels.  It is an area where customers are looking for not only great software products but the services and hardware around it...HP has the ability to provide these integrated solutions to our customers."

"...take the cybersecurity space alone, there are over 80 current and pending legislative bills globally and 25 pending in Congress."

"HP does not believe that the current practice of layering multiple prevention point products after the fact will work.  We believe organizations need a new approach, an approach where security and IT operations are converged, not siloed.  An approach where security is designed in."

Photo credit: wlodi