San Francisco Network Hijacking: The Inside Story-> 1
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snydeq
snydeq writes "A source with direct knowledge of San Francisco's IT infrastructure has tipped off Paul Venezia to the real story behind Terry Childs' lockout of San Francisco's network, providing a detailed account of the city's FiberWAN, interdepartmental politics, and Terry Childs himself. Childs pleaded not guilty to charges of tampering yesterday and is being held on $5 million bail. According to the source, Childs' purview was limited to the city's FiberWAN — a network he himself built and, believing no one competent enough to touch the network but himself, guarded religiously, sharing details with no one, including routing configuration and log-in information. Childs was so concerned about the network's security that he refused even to write router and switch configurations to flash. But what may prove difficult for the prosecution in its case against Childs is that his restricted access to the network was widely known and accepted among managers and the city's other network engineers. Venezia, who has been suspicious of the official story from the start, suspects that the Childs case may be that 'of an overprotective admin who believed he was protecting the network — and by extension, the city — from other administrators whom he considered inferior, and perhaps even dangerous.' Further evidence is that fact that the network, from what Venezia understands, has been running smoothly since Childs' arrest."
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Define "running smoothly" (Score:2)
the network, from what Venezia understands, has been running smoothly since Childs' arrest.
Just because the system hasn't crashed doesn't mean it's secure. They trusted Mr. Childs to build it, they should take his concerns seriously. If they think he's nuts then they should rebuild the whole system. Charging him with a crime and leaving the network up doesn't make sense.
On the more paranoid side, perhaps Mr. Childs is aware of a real and imminent threat to the network's security but cannot reveal it for fear of grave retribution. Wouldn't it be nice for criminals to read bank records and poli