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 Jacob
Jegher, a senior analyst within Celent's
banking group, told Dealscape that the alleged theft by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s (NYSE:GS) employee Sergey Aleynikov should raise some red flags for all banks on Wall Street. "I don't think the issue is what they could lose," he said over the phone, citing the Bloomberg story that reports the bank may lose million of dollars due to the breech. "The issue is the security measures they have in place. What they really could lose is credibility and trust." Jegher hits the nail right on the head. How did Goldman Sachs -- the same bank that dominates the markets (and is bent on dominating the world like a "vampire squid," according to Matt Taibbi) and can potentially manipulate the markets -- let an employee copy a confidential and proprietary software file to his personal computer while working from home? Jegher said: "We have heard a lot about fraud, and in fact 60% of cases where there has been data loss are attributed to employees and insiders. Most financial institutions have behavior-monitoring tools that monitor employee activity on computers that let security know when files are copied and basically set up rules that can not allow an employee to copy those files and notify security. What's really even more interesting here is that the files were copied to a personal computer because the employee was doing work at home. In no way should an employee be copying certain assets to a personal computer -- especially since a personal computer doesn't have corporate security. There are policies at most financial institutions that require all employees to work from company computers." Why do financial institutions have employee monitoring systems and these policies in place? Because if they didn't, employees could potentially download clients social security numbers and bank account numbers. You get the picture. Over the past year, with many employees at financial institutions getting laid off, data security has become even more important.
So what does Goldman do now that its trading software is accessible? According to Jegher, "When software is stolen, they have to go into each of these
systems and lock the doors from the inside out. In this case they might be able to, but I'm
not completely sure."
Even though Aleynikov only allegedly transferred 32 of 1,024 megabits of the software code to that server in Germany, that breech will be felt throughout the industry -- if only to just raise awareness. - Maria Woehr Follow Jegher on Twitter @jjegher and follow me @newsgirlmw Also see: What will software theft cost Goldman? Wait: Goldman software can manipulate markets? Could a ballroom dancer destroy Goldman?
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