Accused Rogue Admin Terry Childs Makes Case

Charged network administrator Terry Childs says he would act differently if given a chance to relive his dispute with the City of San Francisco

By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)

February 18, 2009 — IDG News Service —

He's been in jail for seven months now, but former San Francisco network administrator Terry Childs [cq] says he's going to keep fighting to prove he's innocent of computer crime charges.

Childs was arrested on July 12, charged with disrupting the City of San Francisco's Wide Area Network during a tense standoff with management.

In his first interview since the arrest, given a week ago, Childs contended that he did nothing illegal while working for the city and argued that his actions, depicted as criminal by prosecutors, were in line with standard network security practices. The criminal court case before him prevented him from commenting in much detail on the case, but he outlined his defense in recently filed court documents, describing a tense July 9 stand-off with police and city officials.

That afternoon Childs "unwittingly" found himself in a surprise meeting in the city's Hall of Justice, where Childs maintained network facilities. At the meeting were his boss, DTIC Chief Operations Officer Richard Robinson, San Francisco Police Department Chief Information Officer Greg Yee and human resources representative Vitus Leung. On the phone were engineers, listening in to confirm whether the passwords he gave were correct.

They were not, and within days Childs was charged with disrupting computer services and faced further counts of unauthorized network access. He faces seven years in prison if convicted.

The July 9 meeting was the culmination of a long-simmering dispute between Childs and his managers, who had been seeking administrative passwords to the network since at least February. Childs had refused to provide the passwords, apparently because he feared that they would be shared with management or outside contractors, according to court filings.

Even though it went against the orders of his supervisors, Childs was doing his job by refusing to hand over the passwords to a roomful of people, his attorney Richard Shikman argues in the filings. "The response to suspend him was arguably legal. The response to prosecute him is not," he wrote.

The Terry Childs case can seem like a cautionary tale of the power wielded by the people in charge of computer systems. Or it can seem like a poignant reminder of how dedicated employees can be thwarted at the whim of management.

Childs is no angel. He has already served four years in Kansas prison on aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary charges, stemming from an incident that occurred when he was a teenager.

Three of the charges against Childs in the San Francisco case stem from modems that were found in his office.

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