Not only incompetent, also untrustworthy, which i.m.o. is even worse. “The security of HPE customer data is always our top priority” The story then tells

Not only incompetent, also untrustworthy, which i.m.o. is even worse. “The security of HPE customer data is always our top priority” The story then tells otherwise - they kept relevant information from affected customers and even thwarted their own investigation team to keep customers in the dark. Clearly public image and short-term financial results were the real priorities. Also a lot of questions are dodged with the "we have found no evidence in any of our extensive investigations that..." answer that provides full deniability. That only makes it plausible that much more happened here.