Disgruntled Hacker Takes Control of San Fran Computer Network

by Rob Walker | July 15, 2008 at 11:05 am

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Well this is quite interesting. A computer engineer, disgruntled with his job working as a system administrator for San Francisco's brand new computer network, is holding the system hostage, even as he sits in jail.

Terry Childs took exclusive control of the system and was arrested shortly afterwards. When the police tried the passwords he gave them, they didn't work. He is still refusing to co-operate.

The employee, 43-year-old Terry Childs, was arrested Sunday. He gave some passwords to police, which did not work, and refused to reveal the real code, the newspaper reported.

San Francisco police arrested Terry Childs Sunday after he refused to provide them with working access codes for the city's new multi-million dollar FiberWAN network, which stores e-mails, city payroll files, confidential law enforcement documents and jail inmates' booking records.

A disgruntled city computer engineer has virtually commandeered San Francisco's new multimillion-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to top administrators even as he sits in jail on $5 million bail, authorities said Monday.
Terry Childs, a 43-year-old computer network administrator who lives in Pittsburg, has been charged with four counts of computer tampering and is scheduled to be arraigned today.