Terry Childs's Slow Road To Justice 253
snydeq writes "Deep End's Paul Venezia provides an update on the City of San Francisco's trial against IT admin Terry Childs, which — at eight weeks and counting — hasn't even seen the defense begin to present its case. The main spotlight thus far has been on the testimony of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. 'Many articles about this case have pounced on the fact that after Childs gave the passwords to the mayor, they couldn't immediately be used. Most of these pieces chalk this up to some kind of secondary infraction on Childs's part,' Venezia writes. 'Just because you give someone a password doesn't mean that person knows how to use it. Childs's security measures would have included access lists that blocked attempted logins from non-specified IP addresses or subnets. In short, it was nothing out of the ordinary if you know anything about network security.' But while the lack of technical expertise in the case is troubling, encouraging is the fact that the San Francisco Chronicle's 'breathless piece reporting on the mayor's testimony' drew comments 10-to-1 in Childs's favor, which may indicate that 'public opinion of this case has tilted in favor of the defense,' Venezia writes. Of course, 'if [the trial] drags into summer, Childs will have the dubious honor of being held in jail for two full years.' This for a man who 'ultimately protected the [City's] network until the bitter end.'"
The Mayor's Testimony (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm glad to see the mayor can be so jocular and jovial and downright chummy, cracking wise and generally campaigning when a man's freedom is at stake here.
Both sides behaved terribly (Score:2, Interesting)
But Childs himself behaved terribly as well. None of those passwords were his. None of those systems were his. It doesn't matter if his employers were competent or not; he should have let them have access to their own property. If he thought they were going to ruin things, speak out.
If he found not guilty is he still a city worker? (Score:4, Interesting)
If he found not guilty is he still a city worker? as I think union just don't let city fire some one like that and was he even fired?
Anyways he should get city payed health care (Full with no pre existing at the full cost that this) 2 years in jail = any pre existing that some one can think of.
His job back if he wants it or his full pay for 2 years in jail + 500K per year in jail.
Full unemployment if he can't get his job back.
Re:Both sides behaved terribly (Score:5, Interesting)
His employer was the City, which, being a government, is not a private institution but a public service. In protecting the systems from incompetent individuals, Childs is fulfilling his duty to his fellow citizens.
Such a sense of Duty is rare these days.
Re:Both sides behaved terribly (Score:1, Interesting)
His employer was the city. His job was to keep the passwords safe from everyone except the Mayor. When the mayor finally asked for them, I understand he gave them to him. Was there something in there that I missed?
I'm pretty sure that's not in his job description. The Mayor is not the 'head of IT', and normally most mayors would NOT know the network passwords. Why would they?
When Terry's immediate supervisors -- in the IT department -- asked for the passwords, he refused, which is flat out insubordination. The senior IT managers should have access to the network passwords. That is a part of their job description. It's the responsibility of administrators to make sure that the passwords are disseminated to the appropriate people, and stored securely. (e.g.: in a lockbox, safe, or whatever...)
Terry didn't do his job. He made sure that he was the only person with the passwords, for years! What happens if he gets run over by a bus? Or dies of a heart attack?
This is a guy who thought he somehow 'owned' a network paid for by the taxpayers, just because he was the lead designer! Nobody that crazy should be allowed sole control of anything even remotely important, let alone the core government WAN of a major US city!
Re:How about men like that dumb mayor? (Score:3, Interesting)
Is this the good old U. S. of A. that stands for Justice, Liberty and Truth?
I think it's been a really good while since it actually stood by that slogan. I think it's really the country that stands for what's best for it's corporations and lobby groups, where there is justice for either those with buckets of money and where the truth is whatever the winning side says at the end.
Disagreeing with the majority here... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Both sides behaved terribly (Score:3, Interesting)
Epic win: he also put the passwords in public court records, so the new IT staff had to scramble.
Re:Overstepped bounds (Score:3, Interesting)
I've never found any press source with a contract quote that said that, or any filing in court.
If you have the source, post a reference, or at least the text of the contract.
As I said above - coverage of this case is largely myth-based. Bring actual facts - they work better.
Re:Both sides behaved terribly (Score:3, Interesting)
If you applied the same reason to people cleaning up after poor police work, the word is vigilantism.
If you put the decisions about how things operate in the hands of government employees who become unaccountable to their bosses, ultimately that breaks the chain of responsibility back to the elected leaders. Mr. Childs may well have the best interests of the city in mind, but we've elected representatives to do that. If a legally constituted authority wants access to the city's servers, he should at the very least pretend to have forgotten them, as opposed to turning it into (almost literally) a federal case. If he wanted the mayor to know about the problems, for gods-sake, write a damn letter.
He should *not* be in jail, but that is merely because he should have no responsibility after his employment ended. That doesn't make him some sort of hero for turning this into some sort of revolution against the city IT department. I can't think of how that would be worth jail time to anyone sane.
Re:Both sides behaved terribly (Score:2, Interesting)
It was more like:
"Give me the network passwords" ...
"No, you are not the Mayor"
"You're fired. Give me the network passwords."
"Sorry, that is no longer my job."
"I'm calling the police."
Re:System incapable of Justice. (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't forget the Eighth Amendment:
Amendment 8 - Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Ratified 12/15/1791.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Re:Men like these... (Score:2, Interesting)
It was the cities network, not his personal playtoy, regardless of how he felt about it.
True.
I worked at a company for 8 years. I had set a policy that passwords were given to management in case something happened to me and my IT group.
Actually, the city had a policy that employees were NOT to give passwords to their immediate bosses, regardless of what the boss said. Passwords were only supposed to be given to explicitly authorized people, and Childs' superior asking for Childs' passwords was not one of those explicitly authorized people.
Re:Men like these... (Score:4, Interesting)
I see no reason why Childs shouldn't have surrendered his passwords when they were asked for, if he was a decent admin (as opposed to a technically skilled man-child) he would have had these documented somewhere for management. But I can't seriously see how all this should have resulted in criminal charges, let alone his incarceration for 2 years on $5 million bail. The whole things seems like a gross over reaction to a situation that was poorly handled. If this were involving a private company as opposed to a government I question whether police would have ever gotten involved in the matter. I don't generally jump to these types of conclusions but this stinks of abuse of power to me.