Using Security to Combat Bad Outsourcing
Apparently, there is a new version of outsourcing, and it's been perfected by a family man in his mid-forties known as Bob; he’s inoffensive, quiet, and supposedly loves cats. Well, that is if you don't consider getting caught part of perfection. Perhaps this isn't really that new, but the reporting of it is.
It's been reported that this employee outsourced his development role to a firm in China for close to one-fifth of his wage. He’s apparently done it with previous employers as well while spending his day surfing the Internet and watching videos primarily of cats. As I was reading the article, I was thinking to myself, "What utter genius!" This quickly turned to thoughts of stupidity.
The topic of outsourcing has been a contentious one ever since it began, and it will continue to be for as long as it is undertaken and spoken about. There will always be winners, and there will always be losers. One of the comments under the article is particularly interesting:
I think the Onion did a skit like this a while back. Can someone smarter than me tell my why its okay for companies to do the exact same thing that Bob is accused of doing? His end product was the best in the company yet they call this a 'scam.' So why isn't it a scam when the large corporations do it?
The good news from all of this is that the company's monitoring system caught Bob. This highlights the importance of security—and the monitoring of it—when opening up your network for something as seemingly innocent as working from home.
In this day and age, if you don't offer your employees that level of flexibility in their work, then you're a step behind, except, of course, in “mission-critical” environments. Catching one of your employees giving out his security credentials may be a tough ask, but checking the location of the user appears to work well.
If you're an employer, I think it would be wise for you to be aware of the “outsourcing-your-life” phenomenon. While the majority of it will all be above board, I'm sure there will be individuals like Bob who will take it that touch too far. Having said that, should Bob have been a touch more proactive and developed an outsourcing business case?
Bob surely had some great evidence of cost savings. This could have been a great outcome had they also monitored the outsourcing relationship. Sorry, I just opened a can of worms—I know.
