Network hijacker has change of heart
TEN DAYS AFTER he was taken into custody Terry Childs, a network administrator for the city of San Francisco has given up the all important access codes.
Childs was taken into custody on July 13 after he reportedly locked administrators out of the city’s system, meaning that information on law enforcement, payroll and jail booking records was inaccessible.
A secret meeting between the city’s mayor Gavin Newsom and the offender was set up at the city gaol on Monday afternoon. It was during this meeting – which was not made public beforehand - that Childs surrendered the access codes.
Erin Crane, Childs’ defence lawyer, is expected to cite this cooperation during the court hearing today in the hope that his $5 million bail will be reduced. Crane claims, “Mr. Childs had good reason to be protective of the password,” as according to her, “He was the only person in that department capable of running the system” . Others, she said, had previously “hindered his ability to maintain it”. µ
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he just wanted out of jail. They fired him BEFORE getting all the information from him. They should count themselves lucky here and drop all charges. Nobody above checked on this guy's work once and let him run the area as he saw fit. I don't agree with the way he had it set up, but he did not do anything illegal. The city publicizing it the way they were was to generate pressure on the defense attorney to get the codes. As an EX-employee, he was no longer burdened with the requirement to give them up.
Alex Cross - are you insane???????????????????
He did not shut down part of the network or make resources unavailable. While he had been refusing to surrender the passwords, it did not prevent the city from conducting it's usual business.
No I'm not insane. I think what he did was idiotic, even paranoid. That being said if you read a few other articles you'd have known this guy didn't turn anything off. He didn't wreck anything. Heck everything was working perfectly when he was fired and walked away. That the city was idiotic enough to have never implemented a policy of how to save passwords and configs was THEIR fault. They wore blinders to the fact that ONE person was the ONLY ONE with the keys to the kingdom. (apparently there are memos from other offices complaining about this and his treatment of other city network staff, such as not trusting them to config their own equipment or have passwords) What would you have been saying had he been in an accident? That he was a paranoid wanker? Probably. Would you have been calling him a criminal? No. The city was blatantly dishonest here. He didn't blackmail the city, he was no longer in their employ. I'm sorry, but if my former boss (that just fired me for what I don't consider good reasons) called me up and said "Erm, you don't happen to have time to give me the passwords do you?" My answer pretty much would have been "Bite me." I'm sorry but his obligation to the city ended the MOMENT they fired him. You let a paranoid run a work area how they see fit, and you don't exactly get an environment conducive to change. I'd like to bet the city still hasn't learned this, and that the network will still get f*cked.