Man arrested for taking over San Francisco network
A computer engineer has been arrested and accused of hijacking San Francisco’s FiberWAN (Wide Area Network) computer system, which holds details of city payroll files and confidential law enforcement documents. City prosecutors have charged Terry Childs, a 43-year-old computer network administrator, with four counts of computer tampering on the network. They allege he has locked out all passwords except his own and is refusing to hand it over. “Defendant Childs was arrested on Sunday, July 13, 2008 at his home in Pittsburg, California by members of the San Francisco Police Department and was immediately taken into custody,” said the city’s DA office in a statement.
“The felony counts against the defendant were charged the following day by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.” City officials are now working on the system to get access and control back and to date Childs is still not helping them. The media are reporting that Childs was facing disciplinary action for poor performance and had set up a software alert if anything changed in his personnel file. He may also have passed password information on to third parties. Childs faces a possible seven years in prison and will be back in court on Thursday.
Source: Vnunet
Way to go Terry - hack the planet
he owned them good rofl.
kool
Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania you dumb4ss
Hahahaha good on you bro!! Keep that password!
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Pittsburg,+California&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title
@304403 Re: Post4
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=Pittsburg%2C+California&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Who’s the dumb4ss?
I wondered where all the ‘TorrentSpy Kiddies’ went…
Awesome.
@4-304403
Do you know how ironic your comment is? You called him a “dumb4ass” and yet you could not even realize that in the entire United States that is possible for there to be another “Pittsburgh.” Besides, Pittsburgh, PA ends in an ‘h’, while Pittsburg, CA does not end in an ‘h’.
Terry Childs has my vote… sounds like quite a character. Good laugh!
its truly amazing how stupid people can be by speaking before using their brain!!!
He maybe a middle-aged computer geek, but he’s got the San Francisco PD in circles, good for you!
pittsburg haha owned
terry is a crazy bastard, maybe he;s so good and locked it so well that he figures he can plea his way out for the password, maybe get a nice severence package.
Awesome!!! That guy is a badass! Too bad he’ll probably turn it over soon while the info and help is still worth something
It sounds like if he put that much focus on what he was supposed to be doing he probably would not have gotten a poor performance review.
Good! Idiot nerds have nothing to do with their life… Glad he got arrested..
Hope like hell he has some juicy stuff he got from those files. If not, he’s toast. If so, he’s my new anti-hero.
haha pwned
Whatcha know about PITTSBURG CA?
props Terry!!
h4ck th3 pL4n3t!!!
http://www.linksharez.com/host/
OK, so you managed to hack it, why lock everyone else out? Where’s the advantage there? …Way to screw yourself over.
I guess he figured that they would think he was doing an alright job if he showed he could screw them over. He should have locked everyone out, even himself. Would have made it harder to track down who did it. That guys got some balls though.
It took only the intelligence of one individual with a disciplined focus to accomplish this goal. They now realize how powerless they actually are.
Any idea that is acted upon with no goal in mind is doomed to fail.
He’s behaving very Childisch not giving them his master password.
fukkin awesome.
LOL. Let’s see how great democracy is when it gets locked out. What’s the bet that this guy will get sent to Guantanamo Bay and gets tortured, the democratic way?
Sounds like we’re missing some parts to the story here. He did all this because he “was facing disciplinary action for poor performance.” “He may also have passed password information on to third parties”, what info did he have access and to whom did he pass it on? What a horrible piece of reporting but good enough for the half wits I guess.
You know the Bilderbergers openly stated they were discussing “cyber terrorism” just last month. Yesterday we heard about the internet child porn sites (all open forums and sharing sites) being blocked. If this guy turns out to have naughty pictures on a hard drive somewhere or links to boogy men in caves, I’ll be damn suspicious!
This is likely the first in a wave of this type of “cyber crime” to hit. Remember, they love to use fear to get us to give up all our freedoms. Place your bets on what’s next…
I will certainly be following this one.
I know the password!!!……………………..
OWNED!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
pittsberg cali …….. lol…….. hack cali baby
There’s no information a good run of water boarding wont help with.
This guy faces 7 years in jail and yet the nerd that hacked his school faces over 30 - wtf?
@31
Good question…. I am guessing this T.C. guy has them by the balls atm and they are pleading him to let them go for a smaller sentencing!
He is doin’ it 4 teh lulz.
“Childs” are not respecting anyone anymore these times. heheh
Well this is the crux of it. It clearly shows exactly how many kids and n00bs we have here. ANY person with hacking skills that has any shred of decency would have not done anything more then lock out his own file. I mean what exactly did his co-workers and people he did not even know…do to him? You have just shut innocent people out of a paycheck and food for their families, not to mention bills. Electric and utilities dont care if you cannot get your money because you were hacked, they want paid. And what these morons here that post “pwned” or are cheering him on; seemingly DONT understand is that this is receiving national news and a lot of people that may never have thought anything about it, now are looking at people with hacking skills as some kind of menace. In short destroying any cred that the white hat’s have built up over the years.
Every one of you that is cheering this creep on needs to turn in your computers as while people like 2600 are trying to make hacking acceptable, it is dweebs like you posters that are destroying everything they worked for and making it that much more difficult on some poor kid who may hack a flaw in his school computer and then get tossed out of school because of actions like this creep and the responses that I have read today.
Pitiful, completely pitiful. And you wonder why people are so scared of “hackers”,you need look no futher then the replies of some of you here to find that answer.
@27, jesus youre ignorant. First in a wave you say? you sound like faux news, its just a disgruntled employee that changed the locks to his work and wont give them the key… and you want it to sound like hes al friggin qaeda with child porn.
Moron, you’re the reason why usa is letting bush rape all your freedoms, not osama-bin-computerengineer.
@36 he might have been bullied and harrased for years at that place, if he was Milton in office space would you begrudge him his revenge?
bingebam
July 16th, 2008 | 14:43
@36 he might have been bullied and harrased for years at that place, if he was Milton in office space would you begrudge him his revenge?
If he is hurting people who he does not even know and have done nothing to him HELL YES I would begrudge him!!! If he was bullied (and I am not saying he was not) then why not just lock out the people who bullied him? Why not just deface their files and leave the kids and wife alone. Why did he have to do it to some innocent garbage collector or street cleaner who he may have never met in his life? What did they ever do to him and why should they have to possible suffer all because he has a feather up his arse at his bosses and co-workers in the department he works in?
No disrespect intended to you but your reply is clearly as wrong as these n00b morons that are cheering him on. If you have a problem with someone, then DEAL WITH THAT PERSON, leave the innocents out of it or you are no better then the person that you are complaining about.
@39
1. “Why not just deface their files and leave the kids and wife alone.”
Any person with “hacking skills” knows that defacing is as lame flooding.
2. “making it that much more difficult on some poor kid who may hack a flaw in his school computer and then get tossed out of school because of actions like this creep and the responses that I have read today.”
How is hacking schools anymore justifiable than what this guy did? also, by the choice of the sentence I’m guessing you’re still in school and have alot to learn.
Go back to lurking in 2600 and watching hackers.
Not only to hack a whole city’s network, but also setting a master password… this guy’s a genius!
owned, motherfu<kers…
Why isn’t the person responsible for network security in the cell next to him, lol?
This pretty much invalidates all claims that the guy was worthless and gave a poor performance… he wasn’t worthless enough to pwn the system.
Its like Live Free & Die Hard
“firesail ftw”!!
lol, look at all these posers… “Hack the planet” rofl
stfu you stupid leeches. lolol you guys think you are cool just because you use torrents and someone else hacked something. omfg LOLOL
7 years? omfg…i hate the world..oh no..i hate humans!
whatever, the guy will probably be out in FIVE for good behavior. Or killed by the Prison Guards. But what do I know. Stuff like that would NEVER happen…er…yeah.
yeah stick it to the man
iloldaturfase
July 16th, 2008 | 16:30
@39
1. “Why not just deface their files and leave the kids and wife alone.”
Any person with “hacking skills” knows that defacing is as lame flooding.
2. “making it that much more difficult on some poor kid who may hack a flaw in his school computer and then get tossed out of school because of actions like this creep and the responses that I have read today.”
How is hacking schools anymore justifiable than what this guy did? also, by the choice of the sentence I’m guessing you’re still in school and have alot to learn.
Go back to lurking in 2600 and watching hackers.
Get a life you stupid n00b because if you had any sense you would be able to read what I am saying.
So using your logic, if someone pi%$es you off, then you supposedly have the right to harm people that have never even met you let alone done anything to you? Did your brain kick into gear before or after you wrote this BS, or are you just naturally stupid? Call it what you will but harming innocents just because you are pi&%ed off is not hacking, it is destruction of property and when you do that you SHOULD spend the next 10 to 20 years sleeping with one eye open so your cell mate does not pay you a romantic visit.
And most of the time the hacks in the computer labs at schools are done NOT to cause problems like this a%$hole did, but out of being curious. That is not what this guy did, he did it because of some claimed insult or action he has yet to even prove happened in the first place.
So go back to your little basement room that you still have in your parents home and leave the hacking to the people who know better, and the punishment of jerks like this to the authorities.
i don’t understand how he can be smart enough to do such a hacking job, yet dumb enough to let himself be traced? or realize that they would catch him. unless he wanted to be caught for some reason
The guy’s a n00b…………lol
Just do what the politicians do…….when they ask you for the password, say “I dont recall” LOL
@50 “i don’t understand how he can be smart enough to do such a hacking job, yet dumb enough to let himself be traced? or realize that they would catch him. unless he wanted to be caught for some reason
”
Maybe he did not do it?
He has not been found guilty yet has he? Sorry but prosecuted by the DA doesn’t mean he was judged yey right?
So maybe they are just assuming… we don’t know what all evidence they even have.
I don’t know the terminology too well in the judicial system..so maybe he has been found guilty and then he goes back for what his time will be?
INNOCENT TIL PROVEN GUILTY
and no he has not been to court for the charges yet…
**an update on story**
San Francisco city officials are still unable to access the FiberWAN computer system after a rogue computer technician deleted administrator passwords.
Technician Terry Childs made the changes to the system, which hosts 60 per cent of the city government’s data, after a run in with the head of security. All administrators are locked out except him and he is refusing to divulge his access code.
“There’s nothing to be alarmed about, save the inability to get into the system and tweak the system,” Mayor Gavin Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Nothing dramatic has changed in terms of our ability to govern the city.”
Currently the system is running well and documents can be accessed but if the system crashes then there will be no way to quickly repair it. Newsom said engineers from Cisco had been bought in to try and get access and, if necessary, the city could rebuild it from scratch.
He continued that until recently Childs had been considered a highly regarded employee but was now a “rogue employee that got a bit maniacal.”
“He was very good at what he did, and sometimes that goes to people’s heads, ” he said, “and we think that’s what this is about.”
The authorities say the trouble started on June 20 when the new head of security began an audit of who had access to FiberWAN. She said he began taking pictures of her, and eventually she was forced to retreat to her office.
It was then discovered he had put spying software onto the system so that he could monitor any emails sent by his superiors about him. It is believed he then escalated the situation last weekend when he locked out all administrators but himself.
Childs has been charged with four counts of misusing computer systems and is back in court tomorrow. He is being held in lieu of a $5 million bail, a tariff his attorney Mark Jacobs has called “crazy”.
“I don’t think he’s a threat,” Jacobs said.
“He didn’t kill anybody, and murderers usually get a $1 million bail, so you do the math. Someone out there is really scared of something, and I don’t know what that is.”
It has also emerged that Childs has a prior criminal record for aggravated burglary, for which he served five years probation in 1982.
@common
Why do you assume he’s hurting all these innocents? I’m not really on top of the story or anything, so maybe you know something I don’t. But it doesn’t seem as though this was a complete slash and burn policy to me. I read 2600, but I’m hardly losing sleep over the image of “h4ckers” or whatever novel term is these days. 2600 goes so far out of their way to act like good guys that it’s sorta like what’s the point? That’s not to say I justify steamrolling grandmothers over a parking ticket. I just think that fake and out of context morality is almost worse than no morality at all. It’s why I don’t trust democrats, actually.
I think this is pretty funny assuming he’s not starving children and kicking puppies.
@36 I guess my sarcasm didn’t come across to well.
Let me spell it out for you. Pushing the idea of fear of hackers is this years goal of the global elite. Destroying the internet by hook or by crook is paramount. The truth of 9/11 and sites like infowars.com are the real target. Fear is their number one weapon. This is the first in a wave of fear generating events that will have the sheeple begging to have their internet unplugged.
This is the third post this week attacking the internet and it’s only Wednesday!!!
this story is amazing as well as the comments!
why the hell are people so quick to assume charges are legit? i would like to know what evidence they have, if the system is realy locked down it should be trouble getting to those logs providing evidence, not? stating that they will rebuild the system from scratch sounds like getting rid of evidence that could in fact exonerate him from charges. if he really is guilty the most stupid thing would be not giving them the password as i think they should be able to get control back. or is everything hardcore encrypted? no word on the press about that though.
all in all i can only shake my head to this story. how can the security of such HIGHLY sensitive data be the subject to one individual point of failure? even if he did it i think at least a few other people should be fired aswell for not doing their jobs right.
i must admit that my first thought was “way to go dude! if it was him he really got big balls”. but the people shouting hacker are just dim witted - screwing up a system that you are administrator of isnt hacking in my book.
about the “image of hackers” thing:
i think you should not generalize this term to fit neither whitehats nor blackhats. people who aint hacking will never understand it’s true meaning anyway as they will probably have their minds preconditioned from mass media.
2600 rocks!
have a nice day
riot
who gives a f&%k!!! what would you rather him do take a few guns int work and kill a 10 or so people??? he did a relative harmless act that has fullfilled his andger a not killed anyone… GOOD ON HIM and all the best
Sounds a bit like Die Hard 4.0..
Maybe he did it for fame?
Name: Childs, Terry Scott
Handle: TSC45-ARIN
Company: City and County of San Francisco Department of
Company: Telecommunications and Information Services
Address:
Address: Department of Telecommunications and Information Services
Address: City and County of San Francisco
Address: One Market, Steuart Tower
Address: Second Floor, Suite 250
Address: San Francisco, CA 94105
City: San Francisco
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 94105
Country: US
Comment: Contact: terry.childs@sfgov.org, neteng@sfgov.org
Comment: Standard NOC hours are 24×7 415-247-7585, 415-247-7507
RegDate: 2005-06-10
Updated: 2006-03-27
Phone: +1-415-247-7512 (Office)
Phone: +1-415-716-8424 (Mobile)
Email: terry.childs@sfgov.org
This explains what happened to AvaxSphere! It was hosted on the SanFranWan. I keep getting redirected to something called http://localhost/osama-bin-kidie-porn-hacker You wouldn’t believe all the cool W@r3z & pr0n I’ve found on localhost!
Cyberpunx
Wow… wouldn’t it be funny if he actually forgot the password… LOL.. but seriously those poor filthy rich oc ppl… how will they live life now?!
Sounds like he didn’t do anything wrong, except look after and protect the network he was paid to … and very well @ that!
“Security” a.k.a. thugette tries to have bigger balls and lost … I wonder who found the “dirt” on him. (Aggr. Rob = Took back some thing that belonged to him from someone elses place?) Wow major crime, smells like a smear campaign.
Promote him with a huge payrise!
Well done Terry.
The sys is still up but can’t be “tweaked” - brilliant!
(No one has been harmed either - read)
As one poster commented under this story on another site: “The real cause of this problem is the present management trend towards “reducto ad absurdam” when it comes to staffing levels - hence, one man ends up with all the knowledge.”