i cant think: The Outsourcing Hole

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July 20, 2004

The Outsourcing Hole

Much has been written in the past couple years concerning the economic advantages of outsourcing, particularly as it relates to the business of Information Technology; however, the discussion of the long-term effect of outsourcing is only now beginning to take shape. As one who makes a living as part of the outsourced I.T. workforce I am perhaps overly sensitive to the issue of offshore outsourcing. And even though I have managed to do fairly well by riding the wave, I still feel it necessary to point out the flaws in the system even at the risk of biting the hand that feeds me.

I continue to find it very odd that in this era of the "War Against Terrorism" our leaders ignore the contradiction inherent in the race to close our borders to foreign nationals while at the same time touting the benefits of exporting a large part of our intellectual capital to those same countries whose people we want to keep out. Three thousand years of history, and still we find ourselves liable to make the same mistake that defeated the people of Troy in their battle with Greece.

Federal Computer Week has just published an excellent analysis of this very topic.

It's a story that could come from a Tom Clancy book -- a terrorist cell looking for an advantage against the powerful U.S. military trains a group to be software programmers, who then infiltrate companies that have sent their software development work overseas. Working for those companies, the programmers surreptitiously put vulnerabilities in software.
The concept may seem far-fetched, but so did using planes as weapons prior to Sept. 11, 2001. And given the importance of networks in the nation's day-to-day activities and in military operations, information security is even more critical now than it used to be.

You can read the entire article here.

Posted by bcoffee at July 20, 2004 08:48 PM