Cybersecurity - Disgruntled Employee & Computer Crimes: City of San Francisco & Terry Childs

In 2008, the City of San Francisco suffered a costly and embarrassing loss of computer network services when a disgruntled IT employee refused to permit anyone access to the system.  Terry Childs, the network administrator, refused to reveal the password for the system, thus denying access to the City of San Francisco's FiberWAN.

Childs was subsequently arrested and served time in prison for his network tampering misdeeds.  The incident provides an interesting case study and lesson for IT managers and to leaders of organizations that employ data professionals.

Writer Paul Venezia authored an informative article about the Terry Childs incident.  The article discusses the motives that may have driven Childs to become a "Network Kidnapper". 

The incident begs several questions including:

• What can be done to prevent a lone-wolf employee from disrupting a network in the future?
• What, if any, hiring practices might identify and prevent a problem employee from getting the job in the first place?
• What oversight should leaders who are not technical experts leaders exercise over their technical-expert staff?
• How should passwords be handled between supervisors and subordinates?
• In the San Francisco case, what characteristics did Terry Childs exhibit that might have been clues to potential problems?

References

Van Derbeken, J. (July, 15, 2008). S.F. officials locke out of computer network. SFGATE. Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-officials-locked-out-of-computer-network-3205200.php

Venezia, P. (July 21, 2008). Why San Francisco's network admen went rogue: An inside source reveals details of missteps and misunderstandings in the curious case of Terry Childs, network kidnapper. CIO. Retrieved from https://www.infoworld.com/article/2653004/why-san-francisco-s-network-admin-went-rogue.html

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