San Francisco Admin Hands Over Passwords, Remains In Jail

Network admin Terry Childs met Monday with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and provided the passwords to the city's FiberWAN network that he'd been witholding:

"Newsom took the password to a team of Cisco Systems code crackers that had been working on the case for the city... Childs provided the missing protocols which, when paired with the password, gave the control back to the city. "

But if Childs was hoping this would help get him out of jail, it hasn't yet:

"Terry Childs, the jailed city of San Francisco network administrator accused of locking out superiors from the portion of the city network he managed, failed in his motion to have his bail reduced from $5 million Wednesday."

While it's still not clear exactly what's going on behind the scenes, prosecutors have begun to reveal their thinking in holding Childs on higher bail than most violent criminals. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

"Terry Childs envisioned the ultimate revenge on his bosses, prosecutors say - the meltdown of the city's computer network at the flick of a switch...
The alleged plot was discovered before the computer network that handles law enforcement documents, payroll records, officials' e-mail and other sensitive city records was shut down for scheduled maintenance last Saturday, an action that would have vaporized numerous files because of a booby-trap Childs had installed, prosecutors said in court documents filed Wednesday."

And prosecutors still fear Childs still has access to the city's network, either via other individuals' passwords or via banks of modems Childs has set up in various locations throughout city buildings.

Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:40 AM, July 24, 2008

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By Joe Caponi
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San Francisco Admin Hands Over Passwords, Remains In Jail

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