The story of the San Francisco computer network administrator who's been keeping officials on fire with his refusal to give away the changed passwords, and the media on a constant quest for deciphering an enigma that has kept most of us in the dark, will remain in the history as the “Never give one employee full attributions without a backup plan” mess.

It all started with a smart network administrator named Terry Childs, and some changed passwords to San Francisco's IT infrastructure that got him arrested under a $5 million bail. That should scare a computer administrator, right? Wrong! Childs pleaded not guilty on the four counts of “computer tampering” and still refuses to give away the passwords.

No matter what his reasons for tampering with the network were, the problem is he had the power to do it, which makes us wonder: why give someone so many attributions without first thinking about the worst case scenario? In this case, there was no plan B in case someone would want to take over the network worth millions of dollars.

Child's lawyer called it all a big misunderstanding, but is it really? It appears that the computer “genius” has a 25-year-old Kansas criminal record for aggravated robbery (San Francisco Chronicle)...so putting him in charge of such a project without any limitations seems a bit too much.

The compromised network includes not only confidential records and law enforcement documents, but also controls almost 60 percent of San Francisco's traffic. The network continued to function normally so far, but some experts fear that the situation might turn bad at some point, if the IT administrator continues to refuse to cooperate.

All in all, the officials are guilty for not foreseeing the “unthinkable,” while Childs is of course guilty of going berserk over San Francisco's IT network, although he still didn't admit to that. His next hearing is scheduled for July 23.