Why the Financial System Almost Collapsed

[AEON]

Not exactly, but what in the world is going on here? As a former IT Manager I have to wonder why this wasn't prevented...

SEC and Pornography: Workers Spent Hours on Porn Sites Instead of Stopping Fraud
Gov't Report Finds Securities and Exchange Commission Employees Surfing Pornographic Websites at Work
By JONATHAN KARL
April 22, 2010—


On a day when President Obama argued for more government regulation over the financial industry, a new government report reveals that some high-level regulators have spent more time looking at porn than policing Wall Street.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is supposed to be the sheriff of the financial industry, looking for financial crimes like Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. But the new report, obtained by ABC News, says senior employees of the SEC spent hours on the commission's computers looking at sites like naughty.com, skankwire, youporn, and others.

The investigation, which was conducted by the SEC's internal watchdog at the request of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, found 31 serious offenders over the past two and a half years. Seventeen of the offenders were senior SEC officers with salaries ranging from $100,000 to $222,000 per year.


Eight Hours a Day Spent on Porn Sites
One senior attorney at SEC headquarters in Washington spent up to eight hours a day accessing Internet porn. When he filled all the space on his government computer with pornographic images, he downloaded more to CDs and DVDs that accumulated in boxes in his offices.

An SEC accountant attempted to access porn websites 1,800 times in a two-week period and had 600 pornographic images on her computer hard drive.

Another SEC accountant attempted to access porn sites 16,000 times in a single month.

In one case, the report said, an employee tried hundreds of times to access pornographic sites and was denied access. When he used a flash drive, he successfully bypassed the filter to visit a "significant number" of porn sites.

The employee also said he deliberately disabled a filter in Google to access inappropriate sites. After management informed him that he would lose his job, the employee resigned.

A similar SEC report for October 2008 to March 2009 said that a regional supervisor in Los Angeles accessed and attempted to access pornographic and sexually explicit Web sites up to twice a day from his SEC computer during work hours.


Porn Problem Began as Economy Collapsed
Ironically, the report says most of these cases began in 2008, just as the financial system began to collapse. The same SEC officers who should have been safeguarding the economy were instead spending their working hours surfing the Internet for pornography, and the problem hasn't stopped.

The most recent case cited in the report is from just four weeks ago.

ABC's Ki Mae Heussner contributed to this report.


Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

 

[U2DMfan]

I know I'm supposed to be indignant about this but I just have to laugh.

 

[AEON]

An SEC accountant attempted to access porn websites 1,800 times in a two-week period and had 600 pornographic images on her computer hard drive.

her?

 

[bono_212]

her?

Sexist

 

[deep]

Not exactly .

deregulation is at the top of the list of reasons, along with the repeal of glass steagall act

people that look at porn while on the company clock are almost as bad as people that are on facebook or twitter all day long at work.

 

[coolian2]

deregulation is at the top of the list of reasons, along with the repeal of glass steagall act

people that look at porn while on the company clock are almost as bad as people that are on facebook or twitter all day long at work.

porn isn't as bad as facebook? that's a funny moral compass you've got there.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

her?

 

[AEON]

I just feel sorry for the helpdesk guys - I hope they wore gloves going next to the keyboards.

 

[AEON]

Who is that? The accountant?

 

[Kieran McConville]

That's yam, I mean ann. Her?

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

it's as ann as the nose on plain's face.

 

[corianderstem]

Egg?

 

[Jive Turkey]

porn isn't as bad as facebook? that's a funny moral compass you've got there.

Theres nothing morally wrong with looking at porn

 

[deep]

employees should not be looking at anything outside of their work assignment while on the clock.

I think porn is the one of the least abused 'outside of work' activities most people do at work.

If a person looked at porn 15 minutes a day, in an 8 hour work day, at most places they would be at risk, perhaps even be terminated.


If that same person spent 2 hours a day on facebook, amazon, twitter, odds are they would not even be reprimanded.

How much productivity do employers lose because people are on social networks instead of doing their jobs? they say work servers crash when March Madness is on.

If a person has porn on their screen at work that other people see,
they are likely to get turned in.

If someone is on facebook? Good chance other employees will say cool, will you friend me? Put your phone on auto answer and visit my farm town, please.

 

[AEON]

If someone is on facebook? Good chance other employees will say cool, will you friend me? Put your phone on auto answer and visit my farm town, please.

Actually - that would have made this story hilarious.

 

[deep]

Actually - that would have made this story hilarious.

really? that would not have even made a story, who would care?

but, it is the damn truth

I work in an office,
people are nervous to look at porn, people (women would rat a guy out)
also I believe they can track it through the servers, we have dedicated cable lines

but, people sit around for hours on facebook, even using the company printer to print facebook photos and jokes, etc.

LOLs, ROFL

You have included 16 images in your message. You are limited to using 12 images so please go back and correct the problem and then continue again.

Images include use of smilies, the BB code

 

[anitram]

employees should not be looking at anything outside of their work assignment while on the clock.

If you're an hourly employee, maybe you have an argument there. Even then, if people I work with are getting their work done, I don't care if they're on Facebook for 30 minutes per day or reading People magazine online when they have nothing to do.

For those of us salaried and putting in 14-16 hours, the response you'd get is "take a hike."

 

[deep]

thanks for checking in

now you can get back to your porn

 

[Irvine511]

For those of us salaried and putting in 14-16 hours, the response you'd get is "take a hike."

ayup.

 

[deep]

you facebookers just don't want to admit you are twittering away your life

 

[financeguy]

For those of us salaried and putting in 14-16 hours, the response you'd get is "take a hike."

Can I ask you one question, and I mean this sincerely.

Why?

 

[financeguy]

Re the OP, I already explained on this forum why the financial system crashed, and it's nothing to do with SEC employees looking at porno.

 

[coolian2]

If you're an hourly employee, maybe you have an argument there. Even then, if people I work with are getting their work done, I don't care if they're on Facebook for 30 minutes per day or reading People magazine online when they have nothing to do.

For those of us salaried and putting in 14-16 hours, the response you'd get is "take a hike."

if you're getting you work done and you're required to be there, as far as i'm concerned, once you're done with company business you can do whatever the hell you like.

i think it's unreasonable to ask otherwise.

(so i agree with you)

 

[Jive Turkey]

For those of us salaried and putting in 14-16 hours, the response you'd get is "take a hike."

Maybe you could get out of there in 13 hours if you werent looking at the facebook

 

[ntalwar]

Web filters such as Bluecoat should have been put in place. I can't even access flickr or photobucket at work. Interestingly many companies allow or even encourage facebook use because it can serve some business purposes. As mentioned, most supervisors look at the overall performance of employees.

 

[AEON]

Re the OP, I already explained on this forum why the financial system crashed, and it's nothing to do with SEC employees looking at porno.

The title was sarcastic...