Software Developer Secretly Outsources His Own Job to China

He was a quiet software developer in his mid-40’s—a family man—making over $100,000 a year.  He showed up to work every day and could be seen with his face glued to his computer screen. But it was all a ruse so he could surf Reddit and watch cat videos.

According to a post from security experts at Verizon Business Security, the man had secretly subcontracted his own job to a Chinese firm for a fraction of what he earned.

The company at which the man worked discovered last May that someone in Shenyang, China, was using an employee's log-in information to access their network

According to Andrew Valentine, a forensics manager at Verizon, "The company initially suspected some kind of unknown malware that was able to route traffic from a trusted internal connection to China, and then back."

The security company was given access to the man’s computer to try to solve the mystery.   A simple check of his web browsing history told the whole story.

A typical ‘work day’ looked something like this:

9:00 a.m. – Arrive and surf Reddit. Watch cat videos

11:30 a.m. – Eat lunch

1:00 p.m. – Go on E-bay.

2:00 p.m.  – Update Facebook – LinkedIn

4:30 p.m. – Send end of day e-mails to management.

5:00 p.m. – Go home

So, the man (and his Chinese connection) is no longer working for the company. There is also some evidence that the man was pulling the same scam on other companies in the area, and raking in several hundred thousand dollars a year, while paying about $15,000 to outsource his jobs.