S.F. Network Admin Turned Hijacker Gets Most Charges Dropped

At least this article is showing both sides of the argument, unlike Paul Venezia’s and computerworld’s reckless one sided blogs.

The turnover of three of the charges is not really a good sign for Child’s. The judge threw out the charges that were harder to prove, since the prosecution had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he lacked consent to install the modem backdoors. Since he built the network, this becomes a gray area. But the judge left the most damning charge, the denial of service he caused by not turning over the network switch passwords to his supervisors when they requested he do so as part of change management, peer review, and administrative oversight. There were many things about Childs that make him seem like an imminent danger to the city, but nothing makes me more concerned than his lack of remorse and lack of admission of criminal behavior. The strange egomaniacal fringe of our profession see him as a hero sticking it to management. This is embarrassing to our profession and gives clueless management and CIO offices clout. We have to apply peer review and squeeze out the egomaniacs so that clueless bureaucrats cannot justify their own existence.

How many good admins are out of work right now? I really cannot understand why anyone would side with Childs in his blatantly criminal behavior. Mayor Newsom, SFPD, and district attorney’s office did exactly what they should have done, prosecute, when Childs remained so unremorseful and uncooperative. It would be unjust for law abiding employees to have to live with a management structure that lacked the backbone to enforce the law when push came to shove over a very sensitive issue. Insiders are just too dangerous. What if this had been a hospital, nuclear reactor, airport, or power grid network? A network admin can turn on a span port with a click of button and sniff your passwords as they pass across your database layer or backup layer and store it on a USB key for later maliciousness. And worse than that, how many of you use a username or password that is the same or similar for you bank sites, personal email, online dating, and retirement accounts. Basically, an unscrupulous network admin can own you. It stinks that the city had to spend so much money correcting this and prosecuting it, but democracy doesn’t come cheap. In a combat zone you could be shot on the spot for pulling a stunt like this. A lot of good young people are dying to insure we are free of terrorism. Back here in the rear, we enjoy democracy and due process, and Childs is getting his with a fair obviously attentive judge. What I hope is that admins learn from this mistake and squeeze out the egomaniacs who refuse to play as part of a team before something like this happens again. The people in the rear owe it to the young people at the front to insure that democracy and rule of law stands.