Programmer outsources own job. Has lots of free time.

[BadMouth]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/16/developer_oursources_job_china/

Trying to figure out how I can pull off something similar.

[brad808]

This is amazing. Where do I sign up?!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[CoryBee]

HAHAHAHA 

"Bob is no longer employed by the firm."

[Hoopz]

Hilarious.  And it shows a definite genius.   

[Xiaou2]

heh.   "Watch cat videos"

Have to wonder, if the company just went ahead and kept the Chinese programmers as contractors...
cutting out the 'middle-man'.


 Does make one wonder, however, is this for real?  I mean, its one thing to know how to get a good contract set up via overseas, without official documentation... and then risk a nasty lawsuit over a hacked / hostaged system...
 But even as I have worked in the computer field under much lesser positions, I knew they were able to log and track whatever I was doing, and read whatever email I was sending.  Did he really think nobody would notice the constant out of country traffic?  Nor ever check up on his PCs logs?

[CheffoJeffo]

If the guy had a brain, he would have set up a local VPN for his guys in China to relay through ...

[AtomSmasher]

If the guy had a brain, he would have set up a local VPN for his guys in China to relay through ...

That's what I was thinking.  He should of set up a proxy server from him home computer, so it would appear as though he was always connecting from his house.

[lilshawn]

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

I believe you have already started.

[kahlid74]

 But even as I have worked in the computer field under much lesser positions, I knew they were able to log and track whatever I was doing, and read whatever email I was sending.  Did he really think nobody would notice the constant out of country traffic?  Nor ever check up on his PCs logs?

So there's a lot going on here, and I won't get into specifics but take it from a guy who runs data centers for your online banking sites, not every business does the same thing.  More often than not, businesses have holes everywhere that go un-patched/fixed.  The key here however is the "human condition".  This is where the real breakdown in network and security occurs.

[lordnacho]

My theory is he started out small, had some Chinese developers write some code for him, which he tested and checked in as his own.  Wouldn't be hard to get them setup with a dev environment and test data.  Would be very hard to get caught doing this.  Then he got greedy and upped it to the next level, gave them direct access and sat back surfing(no one saw him doing this at work?) 

[SithMaster]

I'm pretty sure the article mentioned he worked from home since the company implemented telecommute.  Unless they installed software on his personal computer (I doubt they'd give him a company one) they wouldn't be able to track what he does on the side.  What worries me is potential back doors these outsourced programmers added to the code they handed in.

[lordnacho]

It's a little unclear, but sounds like he was in the office
"9:00 a.m. – Arrive"
"5:00 p.m. – Go home"

But it did say they were working on a VPN that would allow them to work from home and he used it to give access to the Chinese developers.

[jammin0]

The minute it mentioned "cat videos" implies to me that nobody knew what he was doing and he probably isn't going to admit it.  If he were a member of BYOAC then he probably has deleted his posts and is long gone by now.

[drventure]

"cat videos"

So that's what the kids are calling it these days 

[Gray_Area]

...and sat back surfing(no one saw him doing this at work?) 

Ask those here who log in all day from work.

[fallacy]

Last sentence, Bob is no longer employed by the firm. Yet he was getting the job done, and apparently getting the job done well. Haters will be hating.

[ChadTower]

Getting the job done doesn't excuse blatant violations of the corporate network's TOS.  Fedexing his VPN token to China?  Uh uh, that's not only going to get you fired, that's going to get you fired by Vince McMahon.

[kahlid74]

Getting the job done doesn't excuse blatant violations of the corporate network's TOS.  Fedexing his VPN token to China?  Uh uh, that's not only going to get you fired, that's going to get you fired by Vince McMahon.

Even more so depending on how deeply you're integrated, you can be found liable for loss of data and other horrific things.

[ChadTower]

Even more so depending on how deeply you're integrated, you can be found liable for loss of data and other horrific things.

Forget liability here.

"US critical infrastructure company"

The article doesn't say anything about any negative impacts having been found, but if they find any, that guy is looking at a whole host of criminal problems.  We're talking Federal charges of the type that put people in counterterrorist crosshairs.

[Gray_Area]

Forget liability here.

"US critical infrastructure company"

The article doesn't say anything about any negative impacts having been found, but if they find any, that guy is looking at a whole host of criminal problems.  We're talking Federal charges of the type that put people in counterterrorist crosshairs.

That was tickling my brain. What's rather darkly humorous, and has been since this kind of thing started happening with CIA agents in the 80s, is how these people aren't vetted out in the hiring and training processes.

[empardopo]

He's a crack!


Enviado desde mi iPad con Tapatalk HD

[kahlid74]

Forget liability here.

"US critical infrastructure company"

The article doesn't say anything about any negative impacts having been found, but if they find any, that guy is looking at a whole host of criminal problems.  We're talking Federal charges of the type that put people in counterterrorist crosshairs.

That was tickling my brain. What's rather darkly humorous, and has been since this kind of thing started happening with CIA agents in the 80s, is how these people aren't vetted out in the hiring and training processes.

Have you ever been part of the hiring process for IT?  The range of skills and personalities is just brutal.  It's like finding a needle in a haystack.

[ChadTower]

...and by the time the req gets through a large company HR it's just a list of buzzwords that don't match the actual position.  They send you a list of resumes that only sort of match part of the job and are mostly made up of people with 8 week certificates and little experience. 

Or they just send you someone random without screening them as provided by some third party staffing surface.  They expect the person to learn the tech on the fly but provide no training budget.  The person spends the first 6 months learning the narrow functional requirements of their job and then never learns a damn thing that would enable them to improve the performance or their own skillset.

That's IT in a large company like Verizon.

[Gray_Area]

You must reach deeper into the Force.

I mean: Dig deeper into the force, you must.

[fallacy]

What did he do wrong? Figured the network and the tools were in place to get the job done, which is what he was using them for. I am going to tell the guy repaving my drive way he is fired. I expected him to do it alone when I hired him but then he brought over these  Mexican guys and got the job done twice as fast just the way I wanted it. That sun of a ---smurfette---!

I am kidding I know why he got fired, his only crime though was that he got caught.

[drventure]

go back and read ChadTower's comments. If where he worked was like any typical big IT shop, they have all sorts of rules and restrictions in the employee handbook that forbids just handing out corporate network access to just anyone, much less access to source code, etc.

I'm sure he could be fired on a host of corporate violations. As far as criminal stuff, I don't know, but it's possible, esp if the company had anything to do with the feds or was in any way federally regulated.