Disgruntled Techie

ejmaztec

Has anyone ever been tempted?


http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4350711.ece

Here's some of it:


A disgruntled computer engineer has been sitting in a prison cell for four days after locking out everyone but himself from a city computer system.

Terry Childs is accused of tampering with San Francisco's new computer network to give himself exclusive access. He has refused to hand over the password and is being held on $5 million bail while officials try to crack his code.

The Department of Technology employee, 43, allegedly created a secret password to the city government's data network. The multimillion-dollar network stores records such as officials' e-mails, city payroll files, confidential law enforcement documents and jail bookings.

Mr Childs was arrested last Sunday and is being held on suspicion of four counts of computer tampering. His arraignment is scheduled for later today.

FX Meister

what a spa. Hope they flush him down the toilet

Ass

A hero among men.

Canis_major

1. Lock out computer network
2. ???????
3. Profit

Well it worked in die hard 4.0 dammit!

Smartly Dressed

Must have been a damn good password.

horgan_p

wonder if i could sell them a copy of erd commander for the modest sum of $2.5 million ..........

pirelli

It's time to get the computer to play tic tac toe.

Remember the movie WARGAMES. Where the computer gets locked out,and there is no back door in. Allegedly as this company in cisco San francisco has the highest security level anywhere and has no backdoor, which is odd for sanfrancisco.

P.S

JOSHUA

I thnk the guy is ****in cool as ****.

Ghost Train

cool, must have a good reason to do it but probably not, hope he's smart enough to get himself some money and some sort of immunity before handing over the password, and hope the password is something apt

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Jigsaw

I don't know much (anything) about this sort of thing but isn't it like a career move. where you can f*ck up an important computer network really badly, then you get employed by the people who solve these problems due to your expertise?

Kold

Hopefully he put one of those pin blocker thingies so if they don't get it in 3 tries they have to wait until the next day to try again

Hero.

The man is a legend in his own time.

pirelli

Jigsaw wrote: »

I don't know much (anything) about this sort of thing but isn't it like a career move. where you can f*ck up an important computer network really badly, then you get employed by the people who solve these problems due to your expertise?

It america, they hired ex nazi scientists, some coporation can hire a disgruntled genius.

Overheal

if it gets too hectic for California I'm sure the CIA could bruteforce the password before too long.

Jigsaw

Overheal wrote: »

if it gets too hectic for California I'm sure the CIA could bruteforce the password before too long.

Maybe a spot of waterboarding?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding

Bob the Builder

pirelli wrote: »

It america, they hired ex nazi scientists, some coporation can hire a disgruntled genius.

norton have been known to hire hackers based on the viruses they've created.

in one case, an interviewee wrote a virus, got hired, and then the interviewer gave the virus back out to the interviewee's to analyse and fix.

could be a similar situation with this dude here, even though, i can't see anyone ever trusting him with the control of a database...

Sofaspud

I really hope he set the password as "Password", just because!

R0ot

Good on him!

If nothing else it proves that the security system they are using works!

Overheal

Jigsaw wrote: »

Maybe a spot of waterboarding?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding

Like I need to be reminded what waterboarding is but sure why not.

If nothing else it proves that the security system they are using works!

Oooh, Securi-Burn!

Nevf wrote:

norton have been known to hire hackers based on the viruses they've created.

in one case, an interviewee wrote a virus, got hired, and then the interviewer gave the virus back out to the interviewee's to analyse and fix.

could be a similar situation with this dude here, even though, i can't see anyone ever trusting him with the control of a database...

Its pretty much standard playbook at this stage and it goes beyond Information Technology. It started with Currency and Cheque forgery and sprawled out from there. Since then theres a habit of hiring former convicts to test and design new security features in a wide array of applications from Home Security to Operating Systems.

Jesus Wept

ctrl alt delete?

Tar.Aldarion

Surprised it doesn't happen more often.

Tara Le d'Arion

Tara Le d'Arion wrote: »

Surprised it doesn't happen more often.

It's a criminal offence in many countries now, with severe penalties to boot.

It also includes any "countdown to doom" that the IT staff may set up to blow if he is out the office for more than a month or so.

Sherifu

The best thing is he is still getting paid in jail.

Profit++

Overheal

Sherifu wrote: »

The best thing is he is still getting paid in jail.

Profit++

erm, jailtime and millions of dollars in fines?

cance

fair ****s to him! clever guy.

I know if my employer REALLY pissed me off i'd leave them a parting gift of deleting all the user accounts or something similar...

Sherifu

Overheal wrote: »

erm, jailtime and millions of dollars in fines?

I doubt it, slap on the wrists at best. They'll have to let him go if they want their city back. Stupid Americans :pac:

Steve_o

Sofaspud wrote: »

I really hope he set the password as "Password", just because!

lol, that would be funny!!!

I think its hilarious that there are no back up plans for something like this... stupid americans indeed!

thelordofcheese

Deleted User wrote: »

It's a criminal offence in many countries now, with severe penalties to boot.

It also includes any "countdown to doom" that the IT staff may set up to blow if he is out the office for more than a month or so.

....ooops

Ohh well, they didn't need those servers anyway

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Duggy747

Ooooh, just like Die hard 4.0, how villianious!!

God, if I was there I would just run a boot cd to clear the password and if that didn't work I'd go "Ah, you see it's broken. You'll have to buy a new one."

OR

He's probably started a Cyberdine system and blocked anyone from pulling the plug allowing itself to become self-aware. If that's the case I don't wanna be ruled by these guys:

http://www.johnny-five.com/images/sc2/misc/j5_and_toronto.jpg

Steve_o

I bet ya its a cover up story cause one of those DNA supercomputers they're working on has gained sentience (spelling??) and is threatening the world as we know it....


*Puts on tin foil hat*

sebastianlieken

tin foil hat?....it will work?:eek:

Sir, here is a blank cheque with my name on it, write any number on it and I will pay it, Just make me a tin-foil hat!

Disclaimer: Blank cheque not included, to recieve your blank cheque by mail order, please forward your:
credit card details,
Pin number,
By PM to Sebastianlieken

javaboy

Duh... why doesn't San Francisco just click "Help. I forgot my password".

Bang in San Francisco's mother's maiden name and they'll reset the password.

Easy.

fitz0

Did they try turning it off and on again?

Adam

The-Rigger wrote: »

ctrl alt delete?

I lolled

Archeron

I heard that the Iraqis have the password.....

andrew

i hope he created the password by just bashing his hands off the keyboard and doesn't actually know it.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Adam

The Scientist wrote: »

Or pull out the cartridge and blow into it..

Blisterman

Hopefully San Fransisco will learn their lesson to, from now on, only hire gruntled employees

Cool_CM

What a guy, I bet he can talk in binary:pac:

Jumpy

Overheal wrote: »

if it gets too hectic for California I'm sure the CIA could bruteforce the password before too long.

Cant bruteforce a system with delays. It would probably take about 10,000 years or so, maybe more.

javaboy

Jumpy wrote: »

Cant bruteforce a system with delays. It would probably take about 10,000 years or so, maybe more.

Who said anything about brute forcing the password?

Krsnik87

lmao

BaconZombie

This is way you should do piss out your local BOFH.....

Haha I just sent that around to everyone on my team
a good gigge on friday afternoon

andrew

andrew wrote: »

i hope he created the password by just bashing his hands off the keyboard and doesn't actually know it.

or else just copied and pasted a random Url found on google

Khannie

Smartly Dressed wrote: »

Must have been a damn good password.

Wouldn't need to be that good. Anything that's more than a few characters long and isn't a dictionary word or derivative takes a ridiculous amount of time to crack using a computer. Best way is that obvious way.....

javaboy wrote: »

Who said anything about brute forcing the password?

.....with a baseball bat.

taidghbaby

The Scientist wrote: »

Or pull out the cartridge and blow into it..

old school rules

Miguel_Sanchez

Gandalf08

Have they tried that?