Off topic: A professor just earns $1,581 per month?
He's an assistant professor. The article also says he is 66, so there is a fair chance it is a part time job.
Hackers steal Western Michigan University professor's paycheck
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Re: Hackers steal Western Michigan University professor's paycheck
#12>> A hacker had gotten into Cool's WMU account and changed the routing number for his payments, he said, sending $1,518.62 to a bank in Utah..... There was $11.08 left in the Utah account, which is all Cool has gotten back of his paycheck. Just curious. A professor is paid only $1,529.70 ? Hope it is weekly.
Gym teacher?
Re: Hackers steal Western Michigan University professor's paycheck
#13Off topic: A professor just earns $1,581 per month?
Gym teacher:
Re: Hackers steal Western Michigan University professor's paycheck
#14>> A hacker had gotten into Cool's WMU account and changed the routing number for his payments, he said, sending $1,518.62 to a bank in Utah..... There was $11.08 left in the Utah account, which is all Cool has gotten back of his paycheck. Just curious. A professor is paid only $1,529.70 ? Hope it is weekly.
Gym teacher? http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cool/
He's a gym teacher teacher.
Re: Hackers steal Western Michigan University professor's paycheck
#15Has he argued with any Comp Sci students?
(edited to avoid implying fault on his part)
Re: Hackers steal Western Michigan University professor's paycheck
#16University has a crappy insecure system for paying staff, they get hacked, so the staff stuffer? Just pay the man!
Re: Hackers steal Western Michigan University professor's paycheck
#17UK resident: My wages are paid into my bank account using an electronic payments system that does not use the Internet at all. The accounts/HR people have computers that are on a separate VPN from the rest of us. The attack mode in this case revolved around the use of a client system to tell HR/Payroll where to pay the money. We don't do that, any change in bank account details is a visit to an office with paperwork.
I've lost a payment in a similar fashion before. The accounts team took the written paperwork and misinterpreted a 6 for a 0 (I didn't write the form) and it just happened to be a valid destination account number. It took me 2 weeks to get the payment back. Doesn't always come down to technology. In fact, when it comes to technology it's usually pretty good. Humans on the other hand always err on the side of incompet…
I do work in UK public sector. I have been fortunate in the payroll/HR departments, obviously.
Chunk of cash suddenly appearing in my bank account would have me asking questions by the way.
I imagine bank security in the case of the unwitting recipient of your wages were reassured by the payment coming from a BACS or similar system. When I paid my redundancy cheque into my bank account over the counter, a bank manager appeared in seconds and wanted to know why this very large amount was being paid in...
Re: Hackers steal Western Michigan University professor's paycheck
#18Re: Hackers steal Western Michigan University professor's paycheck
#19>> A hacker had gotten into Cool's WMU account and changed the routing number for his payments, he said, sending $1,518.62 to a bank in Utah..... There was $11.08 left in the Utah account, which is all Cool has gotten back of his paycheck. Just curious. A professor is paid only $1,529.70 ? Hope it is weekly.
Actually, this fellow is paid $70K/year (he's at a public university where salaries are public). He got into the system before the big shift to lecturers and adjuncts, and since he has been in the system for a long time there is a long history of salary increases, back when times were good, and never a decrease - the phenomenon of sticky wages in action.
Whether his compensation is fair is a different question. His homepage lists what courses he is teaching but not the number of actual sections. A lecturer can teach three sections of a full-time four-credit course. With preparation, grading and contact hours this constitutes a 40-hour workweek.
Re: Hackers steal Western Michigan University professor's paycheck
#20My father and mother work at this University. The same login gets you into email, that gets you into payroll and all other employee areas of the employee website. So if the attacker was able to get the login and password through whatever means it would make any sort of email confirmation useless.
As far as the WMU police investigating this I think its a bit of a conflict of interest as their system was hacked and they will likely blame the 2 employees who lost their paychecks as its in the universities intrest no to send out more money.