5 ms·

Reminds me of the time I worked for one company and prior to going public, we called in some Sarbanes-Oxley consultants to vet us. After a thorough SOX complian

by Ovid 14y ago

Reminds me of the time I worked for one company and prior to going public, we called in some Sarbanes-Oxley consultants to vet us. After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"), I showed up one day and an accountant in the corner had disappeared. Seems that he had a gambling problem, but was allowed to both cut checks and sign them (fall into the GAAP). He embezzled, IIRC, close to one million dollars and was only found due to the SOX compliance effort.

nhaehnle 14y ago
Are you able to discuss in more detail what exactly helped find him?
- eps 14y ago
  Your good old financial audit. Debits must match credits, and all debits must make sense.
  - e40 14y ago
    It's a little scary that SOX was required to force them to do this... that company was run very poorly, IMO.
    - njharman 14y ago
      They were doing it, they being the embezzling acct.
- Ovid 14y ago
  I honestly haven't the foggiest idea, sorry. The company only told us the bare minimum because they were trying to contain the damage.
jacquesm 14y ago
> After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"), If they found that rogue accountant it wasn't all that ridiculous after all. That one requirement was (probably, I don't know the context) ridiculous but the compliance effort apparently wasn't. On another note, I have had a customer a while ago that would have been extremely happy if they had had a printed, filed copy of all their source code.
- jaggederest 14y ago
  If your source code is your life, a printed backup in ocr font isn't that insane. $100 in printing costs? Cheaper than most long-term backup.
  - jlgreco 14y ago
    You would presumably be doing more traditional long-term backup anyway of course; it is not like you would be saving money on that.
  - tlrobinson 14y ago
    Is there something like a paper version of "tar" that will print a directory of files in a format that can be scanned, preserving file structure etc?
    - ramses0 14y ago
      http://ollydbg.de/Paperbak/ http://ollydbg.de/Paperbak/
namank 14y ago
Why filing? As method for backing up IP?
- jrockway 14y ago
  I think they like filing because it's immutable storage. An engineer can't write code to change the filed-away code as easily as they can the on-disk source code. I don't know much about SOX, but based on how I've seen it implemented at various places it seems to be a law that says "it is illegal to write computer programs, so don't let anyone do it! have a good day and have fun running a business!"
  - Dylan16807 14y ago
    Filing is great but file an archival DVD and save a lot of effort. Or five of them, really, just in case.
    - ams6110 14y ago
      Paper lasts longer than DVDs.

by Ovid 14y ago

nhaehnle 14y ago

Are you able to discuss in more detail what exactly helped find him?

eps 14y ago
Your good old financial audit. Debits must match credits, and all debits must make sense.
- e40 14y ago
  It's a little scary that SOX was required to force them to do this... that company was run very poorly, IMO.
  - njharman 14y ago
    They were doing it, they being the embezzling acct.
Ovid 14y ago
I honestly haven't the foggiest idea, sorry. The company only told us the bare minimum because they were trying to contain the damage.

jacquesm 14y ago

> After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"), If they found that rogue accountant it wasn't all that ridiculous after all. That one requirement was (probably, I don't know the context) ridiculous but the compliance effort apparently wasn't. On another note, I have had a customer a while ago that would have been extremely happy if they had had a printed, filed copy of all their source code.

jaggederest 14y ago
If your source code is your life, a printed backup in ocr font isn't that insane. $100 in printing costs? Cheaper than most long-term backup.
- jlgreco 14y ago
  You would presumably be doing more traditional long-term backup anyway of course; it is not like you would be saving money on that.
- tlrobinson 14y ago
  Is there something like a paper version of "tar" that will print a directory of files in a format that can be scanned, preserving file structure etc?
  - ramses0 14y ago
    http://ollydbg.de/Paperbak/ http://ollydbg.de/Paperbak/

namank 14y ago

Why filing? As method for backing up IP?

jrockway 14y ago
I think they like filing because it's immutable storage. An engineer can't write code to change the filed-away code as easily as they can the on-disk source code. I don't know much about SOX, but based on how I've seen it implemented at various places it seems to be a law that says "it is illegal to write computer programs, so don't let anyone do it! have a good day and have fun running a business!"
- Dylan16807 14y ago
  Filing is great but file an archival DVD and save a lot of effort. Or five of them, really, just in case.
  - ams6110 14y ago
    Paper lasts longer than DVDs.