Whenever companies are hit by scandal, we are told they're just bad apples. Don't believe it. The problem is a lot more complicated than that and usually, these sorts of scandals are best seen and understood in a broader context.

Yes, most business people stick to the rules to make a buck but companies that go bad usually reflect something's rotten in the system.

Just as Enron and WorldCom introduced us to the world of accounting shenanigans, the Hewlett-Packard spy scandal has alerted us to the pretexting economy.

Convicted hacker-turned-security consultant, Kevin Mitnick says pretexting - obtaining information through false pretences - is fairly common in this interview with Red Herring.

And the companies with the most to answer for, he suggests, are the telcos.

"It's commonplace, unfortunately, because a lot of these telecom providers do not train their people about what I call "social engineering" attacks. It's usually an open door for information brokers, hackers, or identity thieves to get information...It shows you the security of the phone companies. Many [phone companies] will relinquish your information with just the last four digits of your social security number. If I had your consent right now I could look up your social security number on the net right now."

Mitnick says he feels sorry for Hewlett-Packard chairwoman Patricia Dunn "because she probably didn't even know it was illegal".

Whether he's right or not remains to be seen. But his comments confirm the obvious: Dunn was not operating in a vacuum and that there are plenty out there doing the same thing.

Why the obvious? Because obtaining phone records through shady methods has had a fair bit of coverage lately. Indeed, the best example I've seen is the revelation earlier this year from Washington D.C writer John Aravosis in his AMERICAblog.com . Aravosis provided a detailed and scary account of how easy it was for him to obtain not only his own phone records, but also those of General Wesley Clark!



Indeed, there are reports that there is a nascent pre-texting economy . Look around and you'll find Web sites offering calling records to anyone with a credit card. Just pay the fee. Main customers would have to be private investigators.

All this is a wake-up call for phone companies, reports Marguerite Reardon from CNET News.com.

Still a few bad apples? Maybe, but apples grow in an orchard.