By Joe Fay for The Register. This
story was reproduced with permission.
Terry Childs was locked up in lieu of $5m bail last weekend,
after the city accused him of creating a super password for its new
FiberWan network, and locking out other users. Childs had been
suspended after a run-in with one of his superiors.
Childs, a 42-year-old from Pittsburg, California, initially
coughed up a password to investigators but this proved to be bogus.
He has since refused to give up the real password, according to
reports.
The silent sysadmin’s lawyer, speaking after his arraignment,
insisted Childs was willing to help the city get back into the
network, and had been willing to handover the password since
Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
She said he was “willing to cooperate. We have negotiations
ongoing.”
She also said the $5m bail was ridiculous and that Childs was
“not the bad actor” in the case.
The City’s tech dept though said they were unaware of any
negotiations, and for now, while the network is running, it seems
the city authorities are still unable to get in to service the
network.
Earlier in the week SF mayor Gavin Newsom said "He was very good
at what he did, and sometimes that goes to people's heads and we
think that's what this is about."
Childs’ lawyer characterised the case as a misunderstanding that
had been blown out of proportion by the media. Certainly the case
has gained worldwide coverage, and will no doubt prompt many
organisations to look again at who’s got access to their
networks.
Childs seems to have gained Robin Hood-type notoriety amongst
some sysadmins. Some have raised the absurdity of someone accused
of a data crime which has yet to hurt anyone being held on more
bail than someone accused of serious violence, while others have
questioned what kind of oversight the San Francisco government
exercised if it let someone effectively annexe its entire
network.
© The Register
2008
