San Francisco's Network Saga Continues
Category: NetworkingPosted: July 19, 2008 05:41AM
Author: Nemo
Earlier this week we reported on an interesting story about San Francisco's FiberWAN network being held hostage by what first appeared to be a rogue network administrator. The admin, Terry Childs, had locked all other adminstrators out of the network and refused to divulge the passwords. While the network was up and functioning normally for users, no one was able to get in to perform maintenance if needed and Childs was arrested and charged with several counts of computer tampering and causing a denial of service. Jailed and held on a $5 million bail, Childs refused to give up the passwords. As is often the case when stories like these break, there is more to the issue than was first reported. Childs, by all accounts, is a very intelligent and highly competent network admin and his actions may have stemmed more from a sense of trying to protect his creation from a perceived sense others' inability to handle the complex nature of the network than any malicious intent to cause harm. The real crime here may be one of pride and a failure on the part of San Francisco's IT management to implement better oversight and controls.
