Be wary of the disgruntled IT guy. No really, be wary. He most likely won’t be in to gun anyone down, but he may lock you out of the computer system. That’s just what happened to the City of San Francisco. Terry Childs a network engineer who helped create the city’s new multimillion dollar FiberWan system had reportedly faced disciplinary problems at work. He is now accused of hijacking the city FiberWan system locking out all other Admins.

While the system continues to run normally, administrators can’t make changes to the framework of the system. They’ve called in experts to get into the system but it could take several weeks.

Childs first gave up a bogus password to police. He has now clammed up and is refusing to cooperate. He is currently being held in jail in lieu of $5 million bail.

San Francisco's mayor, Gavin Newsom, described Childs as a formerly well-regarded worker who had apparently turned into a "rogue employee that got a bit maniacal", "He was very good at what he did, and sometimes that goes to people's heads".

Childs pleaded not guilty yesterday to four counts of tampering with a computer network. Childs could be stripped of his public defender, since there might be a conflict of interest because the defender's office is part of the city and county of San Francisco. He faces up to seven years in jail.

Whatever the reason, Childs’ lack of professionalism not only totaled his career (really would you hire this guy to run your systems), but makes managers twitchy about Admin’s in general. The act itself is childish (pun unintended) and will accomplish nothing more than making the city spend money -- tax payer money -- on fixing the problem. In exchange, this guy will never hold a job with that level of responsibility again and will certainly owe millions in damages to the city.

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network, news, law, IT, Admin, Password, FiberWan, San Francisco

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