[real-eyes] Network Admin Terry Childs Gets 4-year Sentence

From: Steven Clark <kcpadfoot@xxxxxxxxx>
To: real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:55:08 -0500
Network Admin Terry Childs Gets 4-year Sentence
Former San Francisco network administrator Terry Childs was sentenced to 
four years
in prison for refusing to hand over passwords.
Robert McMillan
Friday, August 06, 2010 09:30 PM PDT
A City of San Francisco administrator who refused to
hand over administrative passwords
to the city's network was sentenced to four years in state prison Friday.
Terry Childs was
convicted in April
of violating California's hacking laws after he refused to hand over 
administrative
control to the city's FiberWAN network in July 2008.
He was sentenced Friday by Judge Teri Jackson, according to Erica 
Derryck, a spokeswoman
for the San Francisco district attorney's office.
Although the city's network continued to run during the 12 days that 
Childs refused
to hand over control, jurors found that by denying the city the 
administrative control
to its own network, he had violated state law.
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.
Prosecutors
characterized the former network administrator
as a power hungry control freak who couldn't be managed.
His attorney, Richard Shikman, disagreed, saying that Childs is a "man 
of great character."
"He clearly is not a hacker. The state's case is based on a theory which 
needs to
be tested on appeal," he said via e-mail. "The case stands as a metaphor 
for both
human folly and human achievement."
Childs has already served 755 days in county jail, Derryck said.
That time served will be applied to his sentence, so Childs could be 
paroled within
the next four to six months. He had faced a maximum sentence of five 
years in prison.
Childs may also have to cover the city's US$900,000 bill, spent on 
trying to regain
control of its network. A hearing on financial penalties is set for 
August 13.
Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking 
news for
The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at
@bobmcmillan
. Robert's e-mail address is
robert_mcmillan@xxxxxxx
1998-2010, PCWorld Communications, Inc.
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[real-eyes] Network Admin Terry Childs Gets 4-year Sentence

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