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We had to fire someone doing this as well, he was caught because his "subcontractor" was calling into meetings and had a totally different accent! Please don't

We had to fire someone doing this as well, he was caught because his "subcontractor" was calling into meetings and had a totally different accent! Please don't do this... Not only is it unethical, there are security, intellectual property, and liability concerns as well. A company should be aware of who has access to it's internal resources.

elliekelly 6y ago
> We had to fire someone doing this as well, he was caught because his "subcontractor" was calling into meetings and had a totally different accent! This is hysterical. Can you say more about how it happened and the aftermath? How long did it take for suspicions to arise? Did the company confirm the suspicions with data (access logs or anything) or did they just ask him? Did the company treat it as a data breach or just fire the guy and move on? I doubt it happened but it seems like an opportunity for the company to cut out the middle man and hire the subcontractor directly...
- roland35 6y ago
  The contractor who we were paying was known by other employees, so when someone else called into a status report sounding different they contacted my group (IT/Security). He was a devops engineer so we had to comb through all the access logs to ensure he (or his subcontractor with his credentials) did not access patient data (of course this was a medical project with HIPAA). Luckily he was just working on our QA environment so there was no risk of data exposure, but it could have been worse. We were all shocked at how bold that move was!
duckfang 6y ago
Yep, rules for thee and not for me. Companies subcontract all day long. And they rely on cheap labor to do this. And the company benefits. Yet when the person (not a fake person like a company) does this, it's a "firable offense". I've also seen similar parallels about whom should get the fruits of automation: If I automate a harder process from 10h to 10m... If the company knows, then I will be expected to keep automating and get 9h 50m more work. If the company doesn't know, then Im able to retain the 9h50m to myself for my purposes (learning, entertainment).

elliekelly 6y ago

> We had to fire someone doing this as well, he was caught because his "subcontractor" was calling into meetings and had a totally different accent! This is hysterical. Can you say more about how it happened and the aftermath? How long did it take for suspicions to arise? Did the company confirm the suspicions with data (access logs or anything) or did they just ask him? Did the company treat it as a data breach or just fire the guy and move on? I doubt it happened but it seems like an opportunity for the company to cut out the middle man and hire the subcontractor directly...

roland35 6y ago
The contractor who we were paying was known by other employees, so when someone else called into a status report sounding different they contacted my group (IT/Security). He was a devops engineer so we had to comb through all the access logs to ensure he (or his subcontractor with his credentials) did not access patient data (of course this was a medical project with HIPAA). Luckily he was just working on our QA environment so there was no risk of data exposure, but it could have been worse. We were all shocked at how bold that move was!

duckfang 6y ago

Yep, rules for thee and not for me. Companies subcontract all day long. And they rely on cheap labor to do this. And the company benefits. Yet when the person (not a fake person like a company) does this, it's a "firable offense". I've also seen similar parallels about whom should get the fruits of automation: If I automate a harder process from 10h to 10m... If the company knows, then I will be expected to keep automating and get 9h 50m more work. If the company doesn't know, then Im able to retain the 9h50m to myself for my purposes (learning, entertainment).