A UK Police Force Suspends Working From Home After Finding Automated Keystroke Scam

The Greater Manchester Police force has 12,677 employees. But they've now suspended work-from-home privileges, reports the BBC, "following an investigation into so-called 'key-jamming', which can allow people to falsely appear to be working. "Twenty-six police officers, staff and contractors are facing misconduct proceedings following the probe, the force said." One constable told a hearing that a police detective working from home had made it look like his computer was in use on 38 different occasions over 12 days, according to an earlier BBC article. The evidence "showed lengthy periods where the only activity is single keystrokes, pressing the 'H' key about 30 times, between 10:28 and 11:56 GMT on 3 December, and then the 'I' key more than 16,000 times." The detective "used key jamming for 45 hours out of a total of 85 he was logged in for and was frequently away from the keyboard for half of his working day." The constable said the detective's motivation was "laziness" - and the detective has already resigned. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Bruce66423 for sharing the article.

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