Network Admin Charged for Hacking City Network

[czar1020]

Why didn't his boss have a password? wtf ... guees authentication servers are old news and 1 guy with an admin account ownz.... boss must be a wanker ... and IF anyone asked me for my password id tell them straight where they can go , if you dont have the pwd then you obviosuly dont need to get in.

 

[d-block]

[citation][nom]rudski[/nom]That really is bad network policy.Big city in America is so badly run that if ONE network admin was to DIE that they would be locked out of massive parts of the network is bad network policy.Instead of him going to jail it should be his boss for being stupid enough to allow such policies to exist.[/citation]

You said it sister lol

 

[xrodney]

Lool, this realy make my day. One that should get fired is Boss of this guy if they allow single person to complete controll over whole network. Also its not that hard to recovery/reset passwords as long as you have physical acces to devices, it takes just few minutes eventualy hours.

 

[Guest]

I'm a little bit puzzled... Where is the hacking?

 

[decepticon]

There was no hacking done here. Article title FAIL. All he did was withhold passwords.

 

[WHComp]

I don't understand why he did this. Why didn't he want to give them the password. I manage the network for a clinic and could do the same thing to administration here, but I don't see the point. Why did he care if they had access?

 

[tommysch]

Never give your passwords away.

 

[mjpereira76]

I sometimes get over protective of the network I built at work, but then I remember that I don't own the network or the equipment. If my boss, the one who signs my timesheets and approves my pay, wants the keys, I give it to him. I just make sure to document every step in a journal in case he breaks the system and tries to blame me.

 

[jellico]

[citation][nom]captjack5169[/nom]This article is incorrect. I have been reading about the Terry Childs story since it happend in 2008. You can find the whole story at: http/www.infoworld.com/t/securit [...] ource=fssr To make a long story short Terry refused to give the passwords to the SF fiberWAN network to his boss and several other people include unnamed people on a speaker phone listening to the location. At no time and I stress this...At no time was access denied to email, servers, criminal files...etc. There was never any restriction of access to media for the SF employess nor did the network go down, but what did happen, was no one could manage the network or make changes to the network. Meaning you couldn't deny access to anyone or change ip addresses or manage VLANs. They tried to convict Terry on multiple charges of things that Network Admins do on a regular basis. The trial was required reading while I was studying for my ccna. Terry Childs is a CCIE which is the top certification for Cisco techs. He has repealed the conviction. I don't know if he'll get off of the charge or not. It was a real eye opener for me as to how uneducated the general public is about how a network is built and maintained. Still, he should have just handed the passwords over. Probably wasn't worth whats its cost him or the city of San Fransico.[/citation]
Yeah, I read the same thing. I'm amazed that this is still being mis-reported. The problem with computer crimes is that, the people on juries are so willing to believe whatever crap the prosecutors tell them because they don't understand any of it to begin with. Even the prosecutors really don't understand what they are dealing with, so they react out of fear (i.e. "this guy is going to bring the entire network down if we let him go!").

Child pron is the other big one. It's contraband, meaning you are guilty simply for being in possession whether you knowingly possess it or not; AND, a jury will convict just for hearing the those two words... none of the other details matter. How simple would it be, then, to plant some whenever you need to bolster a case? Honestly, I'm surprised that a search of this guy's computers DIDN'T turn up any *wink**wink*.

 

[gm0n3y]

"alleged denial of service (which is against the law in California)"

I really hope that doesn't mean that he got charged under the same law that makes DOS attacks illegal. Two completely different things.

If this happened at any other company, the admin would just get fired, but here he gets jail time?

 

[Nightsilver]

I agree with Jellico, I'm guessing his "jury of your peers" didn't have a single computer literate person on it. I hear prison isn't so bad in Cali though, I'm pretty sure that prisoners receive more health care benefits on average than the average working citizen.

 

[Nightsilver]

Also I wanted to say that I am really surprised at Tom's for such a misleading and inappropriate article title.

 

[Grims]

[citation][nom]Nightsilver[/nom]Also I wanted to say that I am really surprised at Tom's for such a misleading and inappropriate article title.[/citation]

/agreed

 

[tjcinnamon]

Couldn't they just put in a Hiren's boot CD and erase the admin password?

I don't know how'd they'd do it in a Unix based OS but with Windows (to my understanding) if you have physical access you can get into the machine just not undetected.

 

[antilycus]

and yet if he gave the password to the CTO and the CTO compromised the security HE would get fired, not the CTO. Double standard.

 

[smokinu]

Toms... Change the title of this article already. He never did any hacking. Whoever wrote this article or pretty much copied it should learn to do research before posting such crap. Do people not understand the significance of just a trial? He of course should appeal this to the highest level if that is what it takes.