Even System Administrators are Human Beings

The former system administrator Terry Childs, that in July seized and controlled San Francisco’s new multimillion-dollar computer network, FiberWAN, will have to stand trial on January 13.

Childs’ conflict, that had worked for 5 years in the municipality of the city, started June 20th. That was the date when the new boss of the department of network safety, Jeana Pieralde, ordered an inspection. Childs was indignant by the fact that he was never warned about the inspection. He even scared Pieralde, by stating that she “rummaged in his stuff”, and taking pictures on his cellphone how his boss “carried away equipment, that didn’t belong to her”. July 9th he was fired for insubordination to the management.

In answer, he locked the system, that was responsible for over 60 % of the Internet-traffic of the municipality’s officials. For example, it contained hundreds of thousands of confidential documents, such as pay sheets, correspondence of employees, and even documents about the local prison.

Now, he is accused of at once 4 different felonies, for unlawful access to computer systems. The city government spent at least 1.45 millions of dollars in attempts to regain the control over the network. Nevertheless, the access to system was restored only when the key to the created account was given to the governor of the city, the only person that Childs considered as “the only person, that one can trust”.

Of course there are many people that say “how egoistic could he be to do that!”. But in essence, even system administrators are human beings that need to be respected and treated properly. Or they can start protesting and rebelling, in the most irrational way one can think of, and definetly not to the good of society.