Network Admin Gets 4 Years for Withholding Passwords

[Uncayimmy]

Childs defended his actions during a long court trial, saying that he was only doing his job, and that his supervisor, Department of Technology and Information Services Chief Operations Officer Richard Robinson, was unqualified to have access to the passwords. Childs eventually handed over the passwords to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/network-admin-terry-childs-gets-4-year-sentence-247?source=rss_infoworld_news

What a control freak.

[CynicalSkeptic]

What a control freak.
Sounds like a typical sysadmin.

[GodMark2]

Sounds like a typical sysadmin.

I thought he was referring to the government bureaucrat.

[Dancing David]

Um, the city owns the network, the dude is your boss and now you are in prison.

What would happen if we all refused to cooperate with those we felt were unqualified?

[Zep]

And when the network DOES get hacked because the passwords get circulated freely by accident if not properly controlled, they will realise he was just doing his job and wish they had him back in control.

I would also say that "denial of service" really means stopping service to users, not stopping access to managers. So since the network continued to operate successfully throughout, I would ask what service was denied.

ETA: I've been on many a clean-up crew AFTER managers decided they could be sysadmins...

[Cainkane1]

There was a guy accussed of having Child porn on his computer but it was password protected. He refused to give the police his password. I wish I could remember how this turned out.

[plumjam]

Bend over; Bubba don't need no password.

[Dancing David]

And when the network DOES get hacked because the passwords get circulated freely by accident if not properly controlled, they will realise he was just doing his job and wish they had him back in control.

I would also say that "denial of service" really means stopping service to users, not stopping access to managers. So since the network continued to operate successfully throughout, I would ask what service was denied.

ETA: I've been on many a clean-up crew AFTER managers decided they could be sysadmins...

That is just standard bussiness practice. And that is too bad. Just like my employer had no AV for about four months, because teh school board though we didn't need it.

[negativ]

A well-known company I once worked for had a written policy that there were certain passwords that were only to be known by a fairly short list of people, all in the IT department, and divulging any of those passwords to anyone not on the list, including people far higher than you on the food chain, was a no-questions-asked firing offense.

I'm not defending the person who was sent to prison, but there are instances in the insane world of IT where you are expected, as a matter of policy, to refuse access to people who would otherwise be considered a "supervisor".

[rjh01]

A well-known company I once worked for had a written policy that there were certain passwords that were only to be known by a fairly short list of people, all in the IT department, and divulging any of those passwords to anyone not on the list, including people far higher than you on the food chain, was a no-questions-asked firing offense.

I'm not defending the person who was sent to prison, but there are instances in the insane world of IT where you are expected, as a matter of policy, to refuse access to people who would otherwise be considered a "supervisor".

Where I work you are responsible for your own password. If someone else uses your logon and does something against regulations then both of you are in trouble. That does include being sacked. Where I work being sacked does not just mean being unemployed, it means being unemployable.

[dudalb]

He shoud not go to prison,but I could understand firing his butt if he refused a direct,legal, order from his supervisor.

[Uncayimmy]

He shoud not go to prison,but I could understand firing his butt if he refused a direct,legal, order from his supervisor.

Do you object to his conviction for denial of computer service, the punishment, or that this law exists in the first place? His actions denied access to the network by the very people who owned it, which in my book is a crime.

[rjh01]

I think the system is also at fault. There should be a way to reset the unknown passwords by other people. One person should not have total power that cannot be challenged. Suppose the convicted man had dropped dead. Then the passwords would be lost and no one would be able to access the system at all.

Sorry but I cannot blame the man for much. The system was at fault.