"Still, why someone would commit a crime and throw away a $150,000-a-year job after "almost" being fired is a mystery to me."

Because when he gets out he'll be offered a lot more then 150,000 by companies..

You don't remember all the computer companies hiring kids coming out of prison that had been charged with hack crimes (no granted I'm sure it wasn't any old hacker wana be, but someone who actually knew what they were doing)

that all being said.. wtf.. give them their access back and hope they lower your jail time...

or maybe you like it in there wearing your boy wonder costume? ..

SeventhExile

@MEHRDAD: Exactly what I was thinking.

And what's $5 mil when you have billions in bank tracking numbers and enough personal info on all the local officials/inmates/pedophiles to make the city run amuck for years to come.

And, to boot, stuff like this has gotten some pretty elusive hackers some sweet gigs in years past. Think $1 mil a year network security consultant.

savedsoul

@lpc: Having set up and provisioned a few SONETs in my younger days, and having broken and rebuilt many a router, channel bank, CSU/DSU and terminal server (among other cute little boxes), I can tell you that it's possible to get around these things, if you accept a little downtime. It's not like there's really "one password to rule them all" and "none other shall pass". You actually have to go out of your way to create an SPOF these days. Every device has a way of dumping its config and every device has a way of re-setting to defaults. Nobody in SanFran should worry. I'll bet it takes a bearded guy in berkies and suspenders a single afternoon to fix it, provided he gets a pizza, a paperclip, and a couple mountain dews. This guy's going away for a long long time.

ninjagin

Wacky incarcerated hacker bastid.

strider_mt2k

How do I sign up to become an astronaut? I am not getting enough on earth!

MEHRDAD

System Administration 101: Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.

He likely changed the password while drunk and forgot it.

bobdobbs

Swordfish!

MEHRDAD

Sounds like a bag, real loser. I feel sorry for all the nice IT and CS dudes out there that have to work with anti-social vindictive asshole-type nerds. I have and I am super annoyed by the I'm gonna strangle that guy with my Kung-fu jargon that gets played by these fools. Seems like one finally did it. Good for him. At least no-ones dead because he decided the Marines we're a better choice for him.

I credit him with not giving up though. Kinda. It's not like he's in less trouble giving the codes up any earlier. The only thing he gains is a few months out of jail until the trial starts- maybe. He gets the satisfaction of riding it out if he feels.

oo0cyst0oo

Man, this guy is aptly named. What a childish stunt. I hope he's ready to face some other reminders of his childhood, like rollcall *cough*inmate count*cough* every morning, and asking to go to the bathroom.

markarian

@lpc: at first i thought you said innocent goverment and was gonna ask where you find one of those. then i read again and you were right all along.

venomous_duck41

Cmon Giz, you need to pay attention to the lil things. Not dropping off the "h" in Pittsburgh (I was thinking if the dude lived in Pennsylvania why hijack the San Fran network) AND messing up with the 90% window tint in the BMW/Moscow article. You guys do exceptional work but as of late Ive noticed these minor oversights.

pdditty

"Uh...... I'm going to have to ask you to go ahead and move your cubicle wall a little bit closer to your desk..."

Migo

@lpc: damn, you just burst my bubble... couldn't you let me enjoy the thought of the little guy winning for just a little while?

drigo02

@pdditty: Yeah, I'm going to pretend I never read that part just to keep my illusion going.

Magnakai Haaskivi

Sounds like someone needs a waterboarding...

CaptJax

a minute of silence...

ProtoDAda

why are all the hotties either hackers or crazies?

ProtoDAda

@lpc: Damn, I thought this dude was cool until I read your post.

pdditty

Actually, to correct the article...

It's Pittsburg (no 'h') not Pittsburgh, PA. It's a town just a little past Oakland in the East Bay. He was a sysadmin for the City of San Francisco and he didn't really hack the system. He just set the root password and is now holding the password hostage.

Don't give him that much credit - this guy isn't some ace hacker from Iron City, he's just a washed up middle-age loser that was f'in up his job and decided to blackmail an incompetent government that gave him the ability to become the obtain supreme access to the system. This is more Keystone Cops than War Games.

lpc

Soap on rope for the dope.

SigmundTheSeaMonster

NIIIIICE! this guy is the MAN.

Shub-Niggurath

@FritzLaurel:

AIRPLANE.

HELL YES.

videoCWK

Why did he hack San Fran when he's in Pittsburgh?

bmoctta

"Chump don't want no help, chump don't get no help!"

FritzLaurel

STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dorylomorphs

he's gonna get "hacked" in prison, and no firewall can prevent that "network intrustion"!!!

more quotes. and !!!

what a tool... how does he possibly think he can win in this situation?

f1sh3r

Maybe he did a better job than they thought?

Mayor McRib

At least he gets his 15 minutes of fame.

radikaled

Have they tried "pwned"

GeekyNerdGuy

$150k job?? Not in Pittsburgh. They're cheap! He probably made half of that.

reddevil07

Sysadmin with $150k salary working for a city?!?!?!? Where do I sign up?

_badtziscool

Best. Article. Ever.

TheGeektoriousBIG

I think i work with a guy who looks like that..

Wegmans

thats gangster

theconqueror

So, he hacked a network he had superuser access to? That's not especially impressive. It does take some skill to disable a lot of password recovery/reset methods, but that's more a display of government inefficiency than anything else.

Stupid crap.

gattsuru

Its nice to see someone finally providing the world with a solid counter-argument to justify the use of torture during interrogation. Sir, I commend thee, and wish I could pat you on the back... with a baseball bat.

I Think We're Property

damn, I hope none of my company execs read this...they may cut off my admin access and bring in a real pro

mangamonster

Mad props to this guy!

wolfenstein-3d

This guy is my new hero

nonbreakingspace

@SeventhExile: Check this article out about a New Zealand kid who hacked into University of Pennsylvania network, its just what you're talking about. [www.philly.com]

pdditty

@theconqueror: That is Ghangsta!

Make my day just a little bit brighter.

warf0x0r

what an absolute hero!!

malcs

why he didn't just hack his supervisors account, fill it full of kiddie porn (and then call the cops), is beyond me..
??

mattius

Master passwords are lost all of the time, and recovered. This is hardly anything new. Most hardware has a backdoor to reset such things. Even better, you can usually just reset the fucking password using SNMP.

Xavoc

1. this guy didnt do shit. he set up a password on a system he had full access to.
2. anybody wondering: "Childs, according to payroll records, earned $126,735 in base pay in 2007 and additional premium pay of $22,534, for a total of $149,269."
3. they tried to fire him several times, but he had this password, so they couldnt.
4. he is being charged with 4 counts of computer tampering, which adds up to a max of 12 years in jail.
5. giz sensationalizes things and doesnt fact check because they get paid by page view and generally dont give a damn.
6. RTFA

danger the pirate

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta...

VideoVampire

bravo sir. bravo.

Paradise

@dave_1138:

ummm - I should hope that it's not so simple, but to acknowledge

@ninjagin:

I'm pretty sure this system's got a backdoor and whoever sold the SF Gov this systems is probably gonna see some pretty decent scratch in the form of professional services to get this thing up and running again.

and lastly:

@SeventhExile:

There are some pretty slick hackers out there, and this guy ain't one of 'em. There are script kitties in Romania with way more cred than this tool. He sucks and he'll probably spend the rest of his life in a minimum security shithole with some the losers that commit credit card fraud or violate loopholes in SEC regulations. But hey! I think they get conjugal visits, don't they?

lpc

Looks like Kevin Rose with a haircut

CEOself

this is what happens if you don't get your mj prescription.

monomyth

can't you SSH into the server and use a command to reset it?

dave_1138

Waterboard his ass!!

AJ_Syrinx

Ninjagin - absolutely true. Since the systems are up and running, he obviously didn't trash the database(s) or destroy the city's information. The whole thing should be a tweak-and-reboot fix.

And acting like that on a $150k salary? Damn! That idiot wasn't investing in enough extracurricular activities.

Royceman

hack the planet baby ya!

warden1337

@lpc: think he just forgot the password he set, the f-loser that he is...

001

If this guy holds the key to people in the jail system being justly released, they need to start charging him with must more severe penalties... and why in world S.F. would accept a system that can be pwnd like this... is just stupid.

unspellable

Now see, if they had used Performance Impact software they would have been able to fire him! It's all about log events and goal progress notes people...

merebito

@Migo: "Okay, well I guess I'll just have to burn the building down then..."

FritzLaurel

I am surprised that any level of bail was set for this guy.

DeadWriter

I wonder if they have a ticketing system. Check his Siebel SRs for the password. Oh wait...this guy was an idiot. He most likely didn't do any documentation on any of his work.

ovencleaner

I wonder if they have a ticketing system. Check his Siebel SRs for the password.

ovencleaner

I can't imagine it should take them too long to regain access if all the guy has done is reset the root password. Given the city has physical access to the servers, regaining access should be trivial.

tobtoh

So, they don't use strong passwords in SF?

taylors_dad

Wheres Kevin Mitnick when you need him?

Justapspfan

So the combination is one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!

DeadWriter

@dave_1138: # sudo su must not be the answer but all said an done what kind of a low esteem sys admin does that

FireBALL

@DeadWriter:
yay, spaceballs!

godwhacker

i like how officials are saying it'll cost the city millions to undo the damage.

Weihovah

@bemused0:
literally.

tehdahl

Poor guy, he's gunna get an assload more than he bargained for.

bemused0

@Weihovah:
I'd like to be on the receiving end of those 'millions'

Call it, oh, 3 million to fix: 3 mil (divided) by about 40 keystrokes to get it back up (equals) 75k a keystroke...and I thought plumbers were trained extortionists.

(I guarantee a strong magnet will do about the same for .50 cents...just more collateral data damage).

kazoni

Heres how to fix this- find a flashdrive, paperclip, bawls, and anyone with the ability to stop a VCR from flashing 12:00.

roflwaffles

This guy's a criminal. A little iron bar therapy might do him some good. Now, having committed crime, his employer will have no problem firing him.

Barcard

Just find the guys who made the system originally. Or other team members if he was on the team. Realy nothing's safe from the guys who originally make something.

Lupison

@lpc: damn you're a buzzkill

Nemesisesq

@lpc:

Ah I guess I miss read.
I thought he worked at some random company - got pissed and hacked into the main San Francisco network.. then set a master password and given how they still cant get in - I took it that he also did a good job of blocked off all other ways to access the network = why I thought he wasn't a scrippy.

but ya... if he already had access to everything.. and all he did was make a small or dl a small prog. then nothing big - (thou... I assume he did still block off all other ways of accessing the network? .. that still takes some skills..)

SeventhExile

He should say he's an illegal. With SF totally crazy sanctuary city laws he would probably be "deported" to San Bernardino. In this article they have a link to an editorial that talks about their massive illegal immigration problems b/c they have deemed themselves as a sanctuary city. A city that wantonly disregards the laws of CA and the US has pretty much no leg to stand on in throwing this guy in jail. I do hope Gavin Newsom gets elected governor so he can pass other absolutely stupid laws and totally drive CA into the ground.

coolkiwilivin

@reddevil07: Pittsburg, CA not Pittsburgh,PA.
The original post fixed a typo in the original article that wasn't actually a typo at all.

wjousts

It'll all be fixed soon. San Fransisco is known for having penetratable backdoors.

*ducks*

m4ximusprim3

Thought...
Computer science majors = Network Admin's
Computer Engineering majors = Latest chip set designs or latest hardware/software

( @ my school the drop out rate (read as burn out rate) for Comp. Engineers is incredibly high, most all of them switch to Comp Sci and get jobs as Network Ad's)

SeventhExile

"Disgruntled Computer Engineer"..."43 year old computer network administrator" ????

As a Computer Engineer, I feel somehow obligated to inform you that Network Administrator != Computer Engineer. Also, he is ONLY making a reported $127k.

....wait thats more than I make.....I want to be an IT guy in SF!

uberdaan