Disgruntled System Admin Holds San Francisco Network Hostage
By Sarah Vasques
20:09, July 17th 2008
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Disgruntled System Admin Holds San Francisco Network Hostage

A disgruntled system administrator working for the San Francisco city on their new computer network has changed passwords and effectively disabled administrator access to the informational systems. However, everything so far works fine and no data breach has been reported.

Department of Technology employee Terry Childs has been arrested and charged for tampering with the city's FiberWAN (Wide Area Network) by creating a secret password for his own use, while preventing access of other administrators. He is scheduled for arraignment today, after being apprehended Sunday under suspicion of four counts of computer tampering.

Terry Childs, 43, is held on a huge $5 million bail. It appears that his actions were triggered by a conflict with a superior. He is expected to plead not guilty. Terry Childs allegedly was part of the team which planned the router system for the city's FiberWAN, and worked as a network administrator for five years. The information system on which the employee of the city's Department of Technology worked reportedly stored 60 percent of all municipal data, including the city's 311 system, employee e-mail and law enforcement records.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told reporters there is nothing to be alarmed about. "Save the inability to get into the system and tweak the system. Nothing dramatic has changed in terms of our ability to govern the city," the Mayor added.

Even though the rest of the system’s administrators feared that Child’s actions might lead to very troublesome situation, the system seems to be working fine and there are just a few more glitches to fix in order for everything to return to normal.

According to the office of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, if convicted on all four counts, Terry Childs will serve seven years in prison.



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