Disgruntled San Francisco IT Administrator Relents, Hands Over Network Passwords to Mayor

By Aaron Poehler

Published on July 24, 2008

Terry Childs, who has been jailed since July 13 on suspicion of four counts of computer tampering, handed the administrative passwords for the San Francisco's FiberWAN network over to Mayor Gavin Newsom Monday.

Childs, 43, formerly managed the network as an IT administrator for San Francisco's Department of Telecommunications and Information Services (DTIS) before it was discovered that he allegedly changed the system to give himself exclusive access to the system. Childs refused to divulge the passwords to police or other authorities following his arrest; a court filing indicates that Childs felt Mayor Newsom was the only individual he could trust. According to Mayor Newsom, DTIS has now regained full administrative control of the network.

According to a motion filed by Childs, he intends to "expose the utter mismanagement, negligence, and corruption at DTIS, which if left unchecked, will in fact place the City of San Francisco in danger."

The city's multimillion-dollar FiberWAN (Wide Area Network) carries about 60 percent of the municipal government's network traffic and stores records including city officials' e-mail, municipal payroll files, confidential law enforcement records, jail bookings, and other sensitive data. Had Childs not handed over the passwords, a reconfiguration of the FiberWAN could have cost the city hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars and taken weeks or months to complete.

Childs remains imprisoned on $5 million bail; a motion to reduce the amount was denied Wednesday.

 

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