The San Francisco IT administrator that has been keeping city officials in total darkness over the changed network passwords had a sudden, but highly anticipated change of heart. It appears that Mayor Gavin Newsom himself had the honor of receiving the precious codes after paying Terry Childs a “warm” visit in jail.

According to Thursday’s announcement, Mayor Newsom received the codes on Monday night, in a secret visit that not even District Attorney Kamala Harris was aware of, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. It appears that defense attorney Erin Crane was the one responsible for intermediating the meeting between the Mayor and Childs.

It took nine days of continuous negotiations between the authorities and Terry Childs, the 43-year-old computer network administrator arrested on July 13 for computer tampering. Unfortunately for the officials trying to regain access to the network, Childs not only pleaded not guilty, but also refused cooperation, despite all efforts.

However, this time, just one day before the official bail hearing, set for July 23rd, he agreed to disclose the real passwords (I wonder if the $5 million bail had anything to do with his decision…). All in all, officials are currently working on regaining full access to the network, as well as establishing new passwords for the administrators, and perhaps put a backup plan in place for whenever another employee might go maniacal.

Terry Childs was described as a good employee, except maybe for the last part, when he became more stressed than usual. With a background that raises some questions about the extent of his attributions, considering his 25-year-old Kansas criminal record for aggravated robbery, reported by the same newspaper, Childs compromised a network that not only contains confidential law enforcement documents and records, but also controls 60 percent of the city’s traffic.

Childs and his lawyer will try to lower the $5 million bail in the hearing set for today. His motivation for stalling negotiations so much – just trying to protect the city network from the hands of “bad” city officials. According to his lawyer, he had all reasons to believe the network might be harmed by malicious co-workers or supervisors, so he had his reasons to protect the password. Did anyone call for a hero?...

Update: On July 23, prosecutors denied Childs’ plea to reduce the $5 million bail, despite his recent disclosure of the city network passwords. Childs’ lawyer, Erin Crane, described the network administrator as a victim of envious co-workers, who were trying to “get rid of him” for being “so competent and professional that he made (them) look bad.”

Prosecutor Conrad Del Rosario said however that the defendant had an “intentional intent to disrupt the entire FiberWAN network this way,” after several experts working on the case revealed that Childs made some “malicious” configurations to the network. Childs will remain in jail, with his next hearing scheduled to take place on September 24.