NEWS A man who became so frustrated at the extent of his boss's 'cyber-loafing' has been sacked after he installed spyware on his employer's computer to prove it was used for little more than game playing on a daily basis.
And while the aggrieved employee, Vernon Blake, did indeed prove that his boss, George Dobbs, spent, on average, 70 per cent of his time playing Solitaire, amazingly the only person seriously disciplined in the whole affair was Blake. He was sacked by the Alabama Department of Transport while Dobbs received little more than a written warning.
According to local newspaper the Montgomery Advertiser, the rather tame warning stated: "While your work ethic and your production are above reproach, management-level personnel must be mindful not to compromise their ability to manage subordinates."
Blake was fired for installing WinSpy - a free piece of software which monitors the activity of any PC upon which it is installed.
While Blake's frustrations are understandable, and doubtless shared by many around the world, there are few in-the-know who would ever advise installing spyware on a company PC - especially if the PC belongs to somebody with the power to hire and fire.
According to Symantec's advisory on the WinSpy software, it "gives the person who installed it a web-based interface that displays summaries of information that was logged on the computer on which the spyware was installed."
Furthermore it "monitors files, network traffic, and keystrokes" - which would raise serious security and privacy issues that far transcend the point-scoring of catching your boss cyber-loafing. The information Blake had access to could easily have been of a sensitive nature and his access to it may not only have breached company rules but will most probably also have broken the law.
According to a recent report from Earthlink, one in three PCs is infected with spyware. While that is not to say it is all maliciously betraying personal data about computer users, MessageLabs last week released research which suggests spammers are using spyware to harvest personal information and target users with more specific subject lines.
Comments
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1. anonymous
In this case, Mr. Blake was not only doing his job as a Network Administrator, he was following Alabama Governor Riley’s edict to make Alabama “the most accountable, most cost-effective and most efficient state government in the nation.” Mr. Blake should be rewarded for trying to make this a successful reality. Governor Riley should be supporting Mr. Blake, if indeed he spoke truthfully about his plan for Alabama. And, to further show his serious intent to make Alabama more accountable, he should hire Mr. Blake to head up a “Waste Finder Task Force” for Alabama. The money that people like George Dobbs cost the taxpayers of Alabama could easily pay for such a department and still save Alabamians money.
2. Sotiris Baxevanis
Spying on employees is a sure sign of incompetant management. If a manager knows his business then he should be able to tell if the employee is doing his work or not. Planning out tasks, setting deadlines and monitoring them closely is what management should be doing rather then looking over peoples shoulders. Having said this I should point that as good security professional I would recommend auditing of employees actions to ensure they are not stealing or installing harmfull software. I would also discipline an employee that brings in a virus by surfing to non-business related sites but only because their is a cost to the company related with cleaning up the virus.
3. anonymous
Knowing that the boss is not doing any work and proving it is another thing. By proving it, it is a breach of privacy and Blake had violated it. If he was not happy, he could have just left the company, given his skills.
He could have taken another path instead of showing that his boss is not doing any work, show that he, Blake, is doing all the work by reporting his progress.
4. anonymous
I've done some work for muncipal clients. I conjecture that this Transporation manager just didn't use his PC much. I'm not defending this, only pointing out that there are people out there, especially Dilbertian managers, who can get by without referring to their PC very much.
5. anonymous
Do you people actually READ these stories before commenting? Doesnt seem like it
6. anonymous
Amazing. A public service employee actually working for 30% of the day. That must be double the average, and he deserves a pay rise. If all public service employees worked this hard we could cut staff by 50% and all have reduced tax bills.
7. Muhammad
In this case Mr. Blake probably was just emotional and personal, he should have concentrated more on this actual job and not on his boss's activities. He probably thought he was not wasting working hours when he was making efforts to observe the boss.........
Maybe firing was too serious but there should have been some lesson for Blake.
8. Terry Tallman
How things have changed - this was probably true five years ago but now products such as Websense and CryptaVault have altered the paradigm and allow self-policing. How some guy thought he could get away with installing spyware on his boss's computer is astonishing - he should have been fired for being stupid.