The major US bank Wells Fargo has fired dozens of employees who apparently only pretended to work from home. Among other things, those affected are said to have used so-called mouse movers to simulate activities on the computer.
In the US, dozens of bank employees were fired for pretending to work from home. This is according to a report by the news agency Bloomberg According to the report, those affected apparently used tools such as so-called mouse movers to simulate keyboard inputs and mouse movements on the computer.
Mouse Movers: Employees simulate mouse movements – and are fired
The case became public when the major US bank Wells Fargo filed a corresponding report with
to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FIRA). According to reports, the employees affected all worked in the bank's investment and asset management departments.
Most of them had only been working at the bank for two years. A company spokesperson told Bloomberg: “Wells Fargo has the highest standards for its employees and does not tolerate unethical behavior.”
The FIRA documents do not reveal how exactly the employees simulated their work. However, the bank's employees must generally be present in the office at least three days a week. Since the bank apparently decided to use software to control working hours in the home office, those affected apparently tried to circumvent this.
Fake work in the home office
Many companies in the US rely on automated software systems to record the computer activity of their employees working from home. However, such systems can be circumvented. For example, there are mechanical devices that move the computer mouse without human intervention.
Specially developed software tools can also simulate mouse and keyboard movements or even fake the sending of emails. However, this only seems to be able to outsmart relatively simple surveillance systems – as the Wells Fargo case shows.
Such programs are booming, especially in the USA. This applies to both surveillance software and tools designed to circumvent it. Within the EU, the legal situation regarding the use of such programs is more strictly regulated.
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Source: https://www.basicthinking.de/blog/2024/06/18/simulierte-mausbewegungen-kuendigung-wegen-vorgetaeuschter-arbeit-im-homeoffice/
