back to article Sysadmin stole co-worker IDs for Amazon survey splurge

A California IT worker has been jailed for a year for stealing confidential data to make money by completing online health surveys. Cam Giang, 31, a former worker at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, used the names, birthdays and Social Security numbers of other hospital workers to complete online …

COMMENTS

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  1. Hollerith 1

    crooked and stupid...

    ...tied up in a big bundle of greedy. Attractive.

  2. Juillen 1
    Badgers

    It's no burglary..

    He only broke in, and stuffed his pockets with all your goods.. He didn't make it to the door before the police turned up and nicked him, so it can't be theft/burglary can it?

    1. jonathanb Silver badge

      Re: It's no burglary..

      It would be attempted burglary which attracts the same slap on the wrist as burglary.

  3. Sureo
    WTF?

    $100 a survey?

    Where can I fill out that survey for $100? Thank You.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Greedy McStupid and the Gang of Fools

    A person steals/abuses the personal data of their co-workers, which is greedy and criminal behaviour and lets hope they learn their lesson, e.g., they should have setup their own questionnaire and their co-workers would have volunteered their personal details.

    Co-workers discover the crime while they themselves attempt recklessly handover valuable personal information to bob only know what sort of company that is running these online surveys...

    1. JRallo
      Flame

      "health" survey, I'll give you....

      $100 if you give me your Name, SSN, Date of Birth, and Address. All you need to answer is these questions....

      Indeed, fools all around.

    2. Keith T
      Headmaster

      People have a self-interest in filling out health surveys beyond the $100

      Filling out health surveys does give the respondent a selfish benefit too, beyond the $100.

      It is in everyone's own interest that health research and spending be on the diseases that we have and that run in our family. Having you and your family medical history in the survey makes this possible.

      Don't fill out the survey, that makes it look like what ails you is less common. Then they'll be less investment in what ails you.

      Of course, while I'd fill out an on-line survey on physical medical problems, I doubt I do one on mental problems or sexually transmitted diseases.

  5. John Dougald McCallum
    Unhappy

    Paid surveys

    any time that I have filled one of these I have been told that they already have enough replys in my age group.

  6. Keith T
    Headmaster

    Sadly the damage is more than just the privacy or the $100

    This guy may well have poisoned the research being done by providing so much bad data.

    It is not just the $100, but also the decisions made in health care spending, even on individual treatments, based on bad data.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Data?

    Down here in Brazil the local kiddies generate the equivalent of a SSN to answer those surveys and websites that require the number to access/vote on some thing/etc.

    I remember doing this back in the ol' dialup days in the '90s to access ISP's *cough* er, supposedly paid *cough* content. Although there were one ISP that checked the CPF with the name or some other data so it didn't worked. Always wondered how they did that...

    I suppose there isn't a government API for checking SSN with other information, so why not just generate a SSN and a name and you're set?

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