[governance] San Francisco officials locked out of network

[Yehuda Katz]

Irate sysadmin locks San Francisco officials out of network

By John Leyden
Published Tuesday 15th July 2008 15:15 GMT

Art ref.: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/15/sf_bofh_sabotage_charges/

Print:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/15/sf_bofh_sabotage_charges/print.html

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Hapless municipal bosses in San Francisco have been locked out of their network
by a disgruntled sysadmin charged with computer sabotage.

Terry Childs, 43 and of Pittsburg, California, was held on remand over the
weekend pending the outcome of committal proceedings (an arraignment) on
Tuesday where he faces four counts of computer tampering. Meanwhile his former
bosses were unable to access San Francisco's new multimillion-dollar FiberWAN
(Wide Area Network). The network provides access to confidential databases
including payroll files and law enforcement documents.

Childs allegedly created a password that gave him exclusive access to the
system. Pass codes he gave to police failed to work. Even under threat of
arrest Childs failed to cough up the goods, prompting officers to take him into
custody on Sunday.

The sysadmin, who draws a basic salary of around $126,000, has worked for the
Department of Technology for around five years. Childs was recently the target
of disciplinary action over his allegedly poor performance at work. The San
Francisco Chronicle quotes
(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/14/BAOS11P1M5.DTL&tsp=1)
anonymous city officials in support of a theory that Childs rigged the system
as an "insurance policy" against getting fired.

At a press conference on Monday, city officials said they were making progress
in regaining control of the system, which is up and running but inaccessible.
Investigators reckon Child started making changes to the system around a month
ago on 20 June. They claim that undoing the damage he allegedly caused via the
denial of service attack could cost "millions" of dollars. Even taking into
account lost productivity this estimates seems high and probably represent an
attempt to up the ante in the prosecution of Childs in the hope that he'll back
down when faced by the prospect of more serious charges.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports city officials' fear that Childs may have
an accomplice capable of further damaging the system even as Childs cools his
heels in jail. So far police have found nothing to back up a theory that some
type of electronic device might feature in such a putative attack. Childs' bail
has been set at $5m, The Mercury News adds
(http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9882976).

Nathan Ballard, a spokesman for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, said he was
"confident that [the Department of Technology] is doing everything necessary to
maintain the integrity of the city's computer networks." [Ed: where's Dirty
Harry when you need him?]

Ron Vinson, chief administrative officer for the Department of Technology, said
city officials were "working around the clock" to restore access. Ironically,
Childs received an additional salary payment of $22,534 last year for serving
as an on-call trouble shooter, The San Francisco Chronicle adds.

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-30-

Love-it ...
'The logical song' by Supertramp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBAasek8NR4
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