Why You Never Mess With Your IT Person
by Michael - July 16th, 2008 7:56 am
San Francisco, CA – Terry Childs, 43, is in jail. It seems that his employer upset him enough for him to cause a little problem on the job.
Did I forget to mention that Childs works (worked?) for the City of San Francisco as an IT Network Administrator? Because yeah, he does/did. It seems that after being disciplined on the job for lackluster performance, Childs felt the need to prove that he had mad skillz and proceeded to set up a master password for the city’s FiberWAN (Wide Area Network) that only he has access to.
According to a press conference with San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, Terry Childs stands charged with four felony counts including improper tampering with computer systems as well as causing a denial of service that locks city admins out of the network.
After refusing to give up his own master password and reportedly giving police several fakes, he is being held on a $5 Million bond. The network is still operational, but concern has been expressed as this network contains sensitive data ranging from confidential official email communications to police records and city employee payroll records.
It is estimated that the damage could end up costing the city millions of dollars, though the extent of the problem has yet to be revealed.
The lesson to be learned here? Always stay on the good side of your company’s IT people.
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July 16th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I think the lesson here is clearly anger managment. This guy will be paying for his damages for the rest of his life. He will no longer be able to work in IT.