San Francisco Computer Engineer Hacks up City’s WAN
20 January 2009San Francisco Computer Engineer Hacks Up City’s WAN A 43-year-old disgruntled San Francisco city computer engineer was awaiting arraignment last July 15, for computer tampering. Terry Childs took control of the city’s computer network and may have electronically spied on his supervisors. Authorities said he may have tampered documents in the city’s new fiber wide area network (WAN) with the help of a 3rd party. The network contains records such as the city’s official electronic mails and payroll files.
Childs has been with the city for at least 5 years and was once reprimanded for his poor work performance. San Francisco officials are at a loss at the moment because the password given by Childs did not work. He refused to divulge the correct password so that city officials are now technically locked out of their computer system.
Despite the fact that technology today is highly advanced, information systems can still be easily targeted. This is why a city’s technology operations need to be properly managed.
San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala Harris, refused to reveal Childs’ possible motive. Why? Does the case involve more than just a tampered password? Something like a highly confidential government document, maybe?
Whatever Childs’ motive was, San Francisco officials should act swiftly, and in the most professional way, to make sure that this problem sees its end. Otherwise, how can city officials and residents rely on a tampered system? What guarantee will they have that their own files won’t be tampered?
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