Serious provisioning mistake costs $471,000!

I read this in the morning paper today and thought you'd appreciate how serious of a provisioning mistake this was. Would you class this as an identity management issue? I certainly would. I'd also class it as a compliance issue. Great examples of how identity management and compliance are so interlinked. I wonder if Avaya already has an IDM product? If so, it shows you the hole that still exists in the checks and balances side of IDM and compliance.

A New Jersey company paid a man nearly half a million dollars before realizing he wasn't working.

Anthony Armatys was hired by telecommunications giant Avaya in 2002 for more than $100,000 a year. He changed his mind and didn't take the job, but the payroll department apparently never got the memo, according to the Star-Ledger.

For nearly five years, Avaya paid Armatys and he gladly accepted, spending most of the money on everyday items. The rest went straight into a retirement account. Armatys got caught when he tried to make an early withdrawal from that account.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree theft and has to pay the $470,995 back to Avaya. Armatys, 35, faces up to six years in prison when he's sentenced in January -- time enough to think about his next dream job.

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identity management, provisioning, compiance, security