Source code stolen from U.S. software company in India

[Renew Deal]

Company says insider stole source code and confidential design documents

By John Ribeiro, IDG News Service August 05, 2004

Jolly Technologies, a division of U.S. company Jolly Inc., reported Wednesday that an insider stole portions of the source code and confidential design documents relating to one of its key products, at its research and development center in Mumbai, India. The company has as a result halted all development activities at the center.

Jolly Technologies is a vendor of labeling and card software for the printing industry. It set up its research and development facility in Mumbai less than three months ago, according to a press release from the parent company.

The company said in the release that according to a report obtained from its branch in India, a recently hired software engineer used her Yahoo Inc. e-mail account, which now allows 100MB of free storage space, to upload and ship the copied files out of the research facility. After detecting the theft, the company is trying to prevent the employee from further distributing the source code and other confidential information, the company said.

The vast majority of U.S.-based software companies require their employees to sign an employment agreement that prohibits them from carrying, or transferring in any way, the company's source code out of a development facility.
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http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/08/05/HNcodestolen_1.html

This isn't governemnt software, but his is probably the biggest risk with gov't software being outsourced overseas. It can be stolen by someone or bugged by a foriegn power.

[iconoclastic cat]

1. My brother is a software engineer.

He has friends (other engineers) who work in India, and he told me that this kind of stuff was going to come out more and more. It may come back to bite these companies in the butt after all!

[Booster]

2. I was talking to my financial adviser about this

subject and told him this kind of thing would happen, only I suspect when the time is right, the people in India will start using our personal financial information to their benefit. If we think it's hard to control ID theft here, wait til it starts happening over there. I'm hoping a lot of companies see this story and decide maybe outsourcing wasn't such a great idea. We can only hope.