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Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

blog.garrytan.com

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Re: Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

#51

Post by ordinary »

ksaua wrote: post #44
retube wrote: post #37

Hmmm. Ok so this guy uploaded both OS and Goldman-authored code - as stated in the article. And uploading pure OS code wouldn't make sense anyway as it would be available anywhere. And did so immediately prior to taking a principle role at a competitor start up - no wonder they checked. He knew he was doing something wrong - as stated in the article - and his reason for deleting his bash history makes no sense (surel…

> surely bash doesn't cache passwords It does if you're careless enough to type them out in clear text, e.g. when connecting to a mysql database: mysql -h host -u user -pMyPassword database

Useful tip: with

  HISTCONTROL=ignorespace
in your .bashrc, if you start a line with a space, it won't be entered into your history.

Re: Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

#52

Post by lmm »

gruseom wrote: post #30
davidw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stuxnet is apparently half a megabyte.

Do you think it's plausible that 8 MB of source code, consisting of modified open-source libraries, represented a theft of critical Goldman Sachs secrets?

Yes. Absolutely. 8MB is a hell of a lot of code.

Re: Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

#53

Post by redblacktree »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #50

This guy has made two mistakes: 1. He used OS code without consulting first with legal departament of the company. 2. Transferred the source code outside the corporate network without consulting first with legal departament. His boss may be not competent in this field, but the legal departament must be and, I beleive, they already have a policy for OS solutions. This developer made a measurable damage to the company,…

So then you support making an example of this guy, because others don't pay enough attention to the law? Am I reading that right?

Re: Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

#54

Post by [deleted] »

cocoflunchy wrote: post #13
gruseom wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The degree of harm caused is often a factor in measuring a crime, especially when it comes to sentencing. As Garry points out, 8 years for this is crazy.

Well it is 1 year per megabyte... seems perfectly fair to me!

[deleted]

Re: Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

#55

Post by TheAnimus »

gruseom wrote: post #30
davidw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stuxnet is apparently half a megabyte.

Do you think it's plausible that 8 MB of source code, consisting of modified open-source libraries, represented a theft of critical Goldman Sachs secrets?

Yes.

One 'trade secret' I worked on was about 30 lines of code, in C#. I later turned it in to about 100 bytes of x86...

Some of the trade secrets in quant models can just be the weights.

Re: Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

#56

Post by Unosolo »

The original Vanity Fair article tries very hard to paint a picture of a stereotypical overly naive techy.

Little carefully inserted details such as pain-the-back side of having to mow the lawn, all these details should be creating a picture of life-unsavvy coding reclude in reader's mind. The reader supposed to chuckle "how naive, anyone who is on $270K can just hire gardener to take care of the lawn!"

I have personal knowledge of programmers taking the code with them when leaving employment for no particular reason except for "in case I might need it as a reference" and then never ever looking at it again. In my mind it's very much akin to hoarding.

I have very little doubt that the code would be unusable outside of GC infrastructure.

What does seem unusually harsh is the punishment for the crime when no damage was ever done to the victim; to me this is an attribute of a show-case trial.

Re: Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

#57

Post by tankenmate »

mathattack wrote: post #47
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #4

Link bait title -- It was open source code mixed with Goldman Sachs proprietary code . This is also a summery of a much larger and more complete Vanity Fair article [1]. [1] http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2013/09/michael-lewis-gol...

It was stealing proprietary code that could have cost Goldman hundreds of millions of dollars.

Bold statements require bold proof. Care to share?

Re: Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

#58

Post by Unosolo »

mathattack wrote: post #47
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #4

Link bait title -- It was open source code mixed with Goldman Sachs proprietary code . This is also a summery of a much larger and more complete Vanity Fair article [1]. [1] http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2013/09/michael-lewis-gol...

It was stealing proprietary code that could have cost Goldman hundreds of millions of dollars.

To me it is not clear why stealing the proprietary code could have cost CG hundreds of millions of dollars.

Proprietary code that wasn't developed and tested with generic requirements in mind can rarely be economically re-used outside of the original company context, as it reflects the structure and the processes of the mother-company. In fact most organisations I know decided to throw away their code base entirely when restructuring or upgrading their internal systems as re-work was deemed uneconomic, because the gap between the code and changed environment is too great.

Data is salvageable and immediately valuable; however re-using the code requires a considerable effort, it would also be very hard to keep in secret. The news of their platform being fully or partially re-used at competitor's would have quickly reached GC and they could have shut down the competitor entirely whilst suing them for all of the profit.

Of course one could steal the code for analysis so they could try and exploit the technological weaknesses in GC trading patterns, however this is not the argument given by the article or GC.

Re: Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

#59

Post by tankenmate »

ig1 wrote: post #42
gruseom wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was disappointed in that previous discussion. Take away the off-topic stuff and it seemed like most reactions varied from "Good, throw the book at him" to "God that guy was dumb". If Lewis' portrayal is accurate, then Aleynikov is pretty clearly an otherworldly technical type. That doesn't mean he should be exempt from laws, but it's not irrelevant either. For one thing, to anyone who knows the type, it says someth…

According to the indictment the source code included Goldman's propriety stock option pricing algos.

But the Vanity article explicitly states that the "Jury" asked him whether he took the strats (the trading strategies) and he said "No."; the response from the "Jury" was telling, they said "Why not take the valuable stuff?"

Re: Goldman Sachs sent a computer scientist to jail over 8MB of open source code

#60

Post by walshemj »

gruseom wrote: post #23
davidw wrote: post #5

Previous discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6146446

I was disappointed in that previous discussion. Take away the off-topic stuff and it seemed like most reactions varied from "Good, throw the book at him" to "God that guy was dumb". If Lewis' portrayal is accurate, then Aleynikov is pretty clearly an otherworldly technical type. That doesn't mean he should be exempt from laws, but it's not irrelevant either. For one thing, to anyone who knows the type, it says someth…

But playing the autistic spectrum (otherworldly technical types) card is an obvious legal ploy to try and mitigate the offense.

And you are only hearing Aleynikovs side of the story obviously he and his lawyers going to portray himself as doing nothing wrong.

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