Goldman Sachs could have some serious problems, to say the very least.
From Reuters:
Questions were raised about the security of proprietary trading systems at a court hearing on July 4 for a former Goldman computer programer arrested on a charge of stealing the information, which was copied to a server in Germany.
If the stolen information, or trading code, is allowed to go to a competitor who can start trading with it, “the bank itself stands lose its entire investment in creating this software to begin with, which is millions upon millions of dollars,” warned U.S. prosecutor Joseph Facciponte, according to a transcript of Saturday’s proceeding.
One question. Where is the f*ck was Sergey Aleynikov’s common sense when he needed it? His current day job gave him the boot due to the theft and who can really blame them.
They show that Aleynikov, a father of three and a dual national of the United States and Russia, told the FBI he was cooperating because “I did not think I was doing anything wrong” when he downloaded copies to his personal computer, laptop and to a flash drive.
I have to call bullshit on this point as Aleynikov sent out the code on his last day at the company. I can’t help but, stare in wonder. I could not imagine doing something like that to jeopardize my family.
The part of this that is interesting is the question that was posed by Aleynikov’s attorney was,
She told U.S. magistrate judge Kevin Fox that “if Goldman Sachs cannot possibly protect this kind of proprietary information that the government wants you to think is worth the entire United States market, one has to question how they plan to accommodate any other breach.
Interesting point.
Goldman kept all the code in one place??? What kind of idiots are they? They have no excuse
And if the competitors get the code, Goldman can still make money. In fact, it would make the market more predictable for them. They are going for this thief’s balls, and he’s going to hurt, because his lawyer will not be able to do anything against Goldman’s $1000/hour team of corporate attorneys.
I want to play Devil’s Advocate for a moment.
When I write little scripts and tidbits of stuff (even policies or diagrams/documents) I have an interest in keeping a copy for myself for re-use plagiarizing at a later date. That script to synchronize backups that took 2 weeks of hair-pulling to get just right? Yeah, I might like to save myself the agony at my next job in a year?
That might be the thought that went through this programmer’s head, and I know plenty coders who will truly think that and nothing else about how this might be dangerous. (Yes, it’s right to call him out to be so callous and stupid with regard to the well-being of his family…)
Now, it’s another scale entirely to take an full system of code that is obviously sensitive, private, maybe even a trade secret. But I can understand why he may have stupidly done this, though I don’t mean to condone him for it. However, this does illustrate a difference between malicious intent and mistake, which could help limit his liability/fines.
Moving on, couldn’t he just rebuild his ideas for someone else? Maybe Goldman should lock him up in a vault. 🙂
/devil’s advocate