San Francisco City Network Held Hostage by ‘Maniacal’ Network Engineer

Terry ChildsTerry Childs was a system administrator for the city of San Francisco’s high-speed network. According to reports, last week the disgruntled employee created a super password for the network and removed his follow administrators, effectively making himself the only person who can maintain the network. Now officials are stuck, since Mr. Childs is locked up in lieu of $5m bail for multiple charges of tampering with computers.

Negotiations are underway to secure Mr. Child’s password.  Meanwhile, the network is functioning without disruption.

InfoWorld notes that in seizing the network, Childs did not disrupt municipal business or destroy network resources. While careful not to condone his actions, they describe this as being more a prank than a criminal action. Network World frames this as a prime example of “Insider Threats.”

This is an extreme embarrassment for the city, which has lost control of its network.

4 Responses to "San Francisco City Network Held Hostage by ‘Maniacal’ Network Engineer"

  • glenn

    March 2, 2010

    terry is one of the best men alive.I do know and what i type will be 100% true.Terry would never come after anyone.Terry is the best person I know.
    Terry has never done anything wrong and all he did was catch that person stealling out of peoples desks.I dont think he would ever do anything wreong.Hes inesent and everybody knows it including you people in california.The only reason you won’t let him go is because you dont want to look stuped.

  • Mila

    April 1, 2010

    Good afternoon, Happy Fool’s Day!!

    Two fishermen are out on the lake in a boat they had rented at the dock.
    After an hour or so, they drift over a deep hole and start catching fish faster than they ever had before in their lives. This goes on for a while until one of them pulls a large piece of chalk out of his tackle box and draws a large “X” in the bottom of the boat.
    “What did you do that for?” asks the other one.
    “So we can find this spot again!” is the reply.
    “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard,” says his buddy.
    “… How do you know we’ll get the SAME boat next time?”

    Happy April Fool’s Day!

  • […] Negligent Network Security – for failure of security measures to prevent a denial of service, unauthorized access, theft of electronic data, inadvertent transmission of a virus or other malicious code using your firm’s infrastructure. […]

  • Anonymous

    July 31, 2023

    Your blog post was thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating. I enjoyed the way you challenged conventional thinking and presented alternative viewpoints. To explore more, click here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.