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Software developer outsources his job to China, makes good money goofing off all day
In this economy you'd think there aren't many six-figure jobs that let you wander aimlessly throughout the web all day between cat videos and catching up with social networks. And you'd be right. But one software developer in his 40s was living the dream nonetheless thanks to the magic of outsourcing.
A Verizon report recently detailed one the case of an employee at a U.S. based infrastructure company who was outsourcing his entire job to China for a fifth of his salary. The man in question, referred to as Bob, had gone as far as physically shipping his RSA security token to China so that the third-party contractor could go through the two-factor authentication and log-in under his credentials during the workday.
But eventually the scheme was discovered when Verizon received a request from the unnamed company asking for help in understanding anomalous activity it was witnessing in its VPN logs.
Upon seeing an open and active connection from Shenyang, China, the companies initially suspected some kind of unknown zero-day malware had been able to infiltrate the network. However, further investigation proved otherwise, Bob had simply outsourced his own job to a Chinese consulting firm.
A look at his browsing history revealed what his typical work day consisted of surfing Reddit for a couple of hours, having lunch, browsing social networks, then emailing his end of day update to management. Evidence even suggested he had the same scam going across multiple companies in the area.
Amusingly, it seems that Bob at least chose his developers carefully. Performance reviews cited his clean, well-written code, and even regarded him as the best developer in the building.
User Comments: 31
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How is that a scam ? Guy was paid to get some work done and from what I understand he did all that and then some - hardly a scam. Security and possibly NDA violation, sure, but not a scam.
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Chemicalist said:
Uh Scam? No. Deceitful yes, but not a scam. If he opened up a bunch of big security holes by allowing these consulting firms access I could see why he'd be in trouble, but otherwise I'd expect the worst that could happen to him would be losing his 'job'. Verizon was receiving everything they paid for, and high quality work, by the sound of it.Personally, I'd never outsource my job to China. I'd pick India for sure.
You still have to pick carefully wherever you are. There are loads of talented Indian developers, for sure, but there are also a lot who love them some spaghetti code.
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LNCPapa said:
Sarcasm fail? or did I read too much into that?
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Hi, the biggest problem here will be the fact that he signed confidentiality papers [ Standard for most companies] that said he would not divulge any company information outside the company without consent. he really blew this by sending his Secure login. even if you cannot prove he caused any security breaches [ who knows anyway].
The fact that he was in breach of contract concerning company information will get him into deep trouble should they decide to sue him. Sharing that secure login will be what really gets him. Also if your not aware, he may have also violated Trade laws [ Export] by giving out the security code.
Im not sure how this applies to this event but the RSA login key was encrypted and he transported it out of the country [ code] . and if it was a certain strength that is blocked for export: China of all places. Then he can get into trouble there too.
They can make his life very difficult if they want to be vicious about it.
But otherwise yeah he got one over on them, but he may have to pay for being a Smart A** .
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Wow, it took 29 comments to get to the export trade law violation question?
*sighs and shakes her head*
Depending on what technology he "exported", he could face prison time. This may be why there are not more details about the data he was sending. But, what I will do is report back here if there is a settlement agreement (fine and possibly jail time) with Dept of State or Dept of Commerce. Might take a year or so, but I will let you know.
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He is in breach of contract I would bet money
gross misconduct for disclosure of material / something or other
possible civil suit against him even criminal?? I.e theft
either way he is gone
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