Feds cuff coder accused of US bank source code swipe A computer programmer has been charged with stealing source code worth $9.5m from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, according to the FBI and prosecutors. Bo Zhang, a 32-year-old from Queens in New York, was cuffed on suspicion of swiping the Government-wide Accounting and Reporting (GWA) software, used to help keep track …
What is it with FedGov agencies and external storage devices?
First there was Wen Ho Lee at Los Alamos, then the missing floppy flap at Sandia, followed by the UAV management system malware debacle, and now this guy at the Federal Reserve...
This post has been deleted by its author
Regardless of how innocent his purpose is, doing this is just plain stupid. I'm sure that in his boilerplate contract, there are sections dealing with proprietary code and confidentiality. Plus this is coding for the Federal Reserve. I'm surprised that the NSA didn't just black bag him quietly and avoid the publicity.
Not only is it a boring accounting system. Its an accounting system for a government department. It has no commercial value whatsoever.
''
The fact that the feds (over)spent $9.5 million on the software does not actually make it worth anything.
This would seem to be yet another example of Federal government prosecutors abusing there powers to boost there conviction numbers, get publicity and enough promotion to run for a better paying job.
For other examples take a look at:-
http://www.economist.com/node/21542772
http://www.economist.com/node/16636027
for (;;) {
$accountBalance += $irs->extortMoneyAtGunpoint($taxRate) unless $deathDidDie;
$accountBalance += $treasury->sellGovtBondsToHoiPolloi();
if (log(-$accountBalance) > 12) {
$fed->printRandomAmountOfMoney();
$accountBalance += $treasury->sellGovtBondsToFedVia($goldmanSachs);
damageControlVia(@spinmeisters)
}
do {
$accountBalance -= $congress->welfareWarfareSpending($exelSheet,$blackExcelSheet);
} while !moneyLustSatiated();
elect(); elect();
$taxRate *= 1.1;
$situation->update($taxRate,$accountBalance)
throw FinancialException if $situation->isZimbabwe()
}
By the end of the article I'm beginning to wonder...
If he wasn't told this is just some stuff we use that needs these improvements...
If he looks at the code and thinks what a POS this is...
If after questioning some stuff he's told, look, you're just a contractor, fix what we say and just shut up about the rest...
If after awhile of trying to fix up things he doesn't think parts of the code aren't *perfect* examples of what not to do...
If he didn't think, I should include bits of this trash as examples in my part-time class I'm setting up...
In other words, he tried to get some positive value out of code with negative values. A DailyWTF, but with the FRB source code.
Wrong actions, yes. But maybe it's more like Dumb (contractor) and Dumber (code)?
*Now* they tell him it's worth US$9.5crapillions? Anyone for an independent review? How about this turning around into "You paid *what* for this limp biz-wang?"
In the case of: U.S. v. Zhang, 12-mag-00108, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
> A New York Fed spokesperson told Reuters and others that the bank had investigated the breach as soon as it was uncovered and promptly referred the case to the authorities ..
>> The New York Fed detected the breach through its established security procedures and referred it to law enforcement officials, Jack Gutt, a spokesman, said in an e- mailed statement ..
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-19/treasury-code-stolen-by-new-york-fed-programmer-u-s-says.html
Minority Report: Investigators discovered the breach after one of Zhang's colleagues told a supervisor Zang had been asking round the office about a missing harddrive. Zhang had previously told colleges that he was developing something "for private work", in the event that he would be dropped from his current perma-temp contractor employement. The complaint, stated that Zhang copied his own code onto the external drive.
Whilst I can see that these acts are a breach of contract, how can it be said that he "stole" $9M of software.
When my bicycle was stolen, I no longer had the use of it to ride to the shops or the pub. When this man copied the source code, it was still there for the Fed to use. Massive fines and up to ten years in prison seems rather disproportionate. It also seems like dumb economics as the legal system wants to remove the economic gain of a taxpayer, plus the cost of keeping him in prison for up to ten years for a crime that seems to have inflicted no damage to anyone. Or am I missing something here?
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