Cyber-loafing boss sacks office spyware detective

A man who became so frustrated at the extent of his boss's 'cyber-loafing' has been sacked after he installed spyware on his employer's computer to prove it was used for little more than game playing on a daily basis.

And while the aggrieved employee, Vernon Blake, did indeed prove that his boss, George Dobbs, spent, on average, 70 per cent of his time playing Solitaire, amazingly the only person seriously disciplined in the whole affair was Blake. He was sacked by the Alabama Department of Transport while Dobbs received little more than a written warning.

According to local newspaper the Montgomery Advertiser, the rather tame warning stated: "While your work ethic and your production are above reproach, management-level personnel must be mindful not to compromise their ability to manage subordinates."

Blake was fired for installing WinSpy - a free piece of software which monitors the activity of any PC upon which it is installed.

While Blake's frustrations are understandable, and doubtless shared by many around the world, there are few in-the-know who would ever advise installing spyware on a company PC - especially if the PC belongs to somebody with the power to hire and fire.

According to Symantec's advisory on the WinSpy software, it "gives the person who installed it a web-based interface that displays summaries of information that was logged on the computer on which the spyware was installed."

Furthermore it "monitors files, network traffic, and keystrokes" - which would raise serious security and privacy issues that far transcend the point-scoring of catching your boss cyber-loafing. The information Blake had access to could easily have been of a sensitive nature and his access to it may not only have breached company rules but will most probably also have broken the law.

According to a recent report from Earthlink, one in three PCs is infected with spyware. While that is not to say it is all maliciously betraying personal data about computer users, MessageLabs last week released research which suggests spammers are using spyware to harvest personal information and target users with more specific subject lines.