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Disgruntled Engineer Hijacks San Francisco's Computer System
ceswiedler writes "A disgruntled software engineer has hijacked San Francisco's new multimillion-dollar municipal computer system. When the Department of Technology tried to fire him, he disabled all administrative passwords other than his own. He was taken into custody but has so far refused to provide the password, and the department has yet to regain admin access on their own. They're worried that he or an associate might be able to destroy hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents, including emails, payroll information, and law enforcement documents."
I mean, is there any SysAdmin who didn't think of doing just that?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Market forces only work if 100% unregulated. If anyone with, say, a bus, can start driving people around in a town, and they're allowed to charge whatever they want for the service, and to drive from and to wherever they want, over time you'll have different bus companies competing over the same or similar lines on both quality and price.
If however there's regulation, barriers to entry, standards to be fulfilled etc., then it's "market forces" on appearance only, not in fact. To be precise, a heavily regulated market is pretty much a state bureaucracy, only done by private-in-name-only parties. Everything else continues to work the same or, yes, even worse.
This isn't to mean that everything should be done by private entities. There are activities that clearly belong to the state. But one should make sure those, and only those, are being handled by the government. If you have the state taking care of something that should be in the hands of the market, or the other way around, disaster happens.
A state that does only that which only a state can do, and nothing more, is the exact definition of the "minimum state" as defended by libertarians and classic liberals. It must do that. Nothing more and, more important, nothing less.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
While your point if valid, you ability to express it leaves much to be desired. Where is 'here?' You also write your comment as though you sit at the top of some great hierarchy, down upon us lowly IT 'Engineering folks.'
With that attitude, go fuck yourself. I'm all for someone taking responsibility for their work and actions. Slavery is not the way things are supposed to be. Also, being a citizen of SF, that network PC, and data *is* his, at least in part.
Fucking Anonymous Coward.
In the scenario you descibre, the streets would become choked with dirty, unsafe buses and traffic would grind to a halt.
I doubt it. Why would anyone ride an unsafe bus knowingly? If no one rides the buses, the buses don't have money to operate, and they aren't crowding the streets any more.
In any case, he recognized that there are things which are better done by the state, so you're setting up a strawman by saying he thinks the market is always superior.
people smarter than you
Perhaps, when you've grown up, experienced the real world a bit and stopped reading Ayn Rands bullshit, you might get a clue.
Perhaps when you've grown up, you won't choose to resort to ad-hominem attacks against another person trying to engage in a civilized discussion with you. You're being nothing short of stupid and childish by resorting to personal attacks.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
I predict the Bush Administration will step in and he'll get water-boarded until he talks.
what is going to interest me is how many years they will attempt to land on him.
It's San Francisco. Depending on who's on the jury, they may just aquit him and hold a dinner in his honor.
Reminds me of "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. Maybe he thought they didn't deserve to use the super secure system that he had set up. Maybe he didn't like the usage of the system. The collective is no power against a genius.
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
It's running Windows Vista. I guess all it takes is one pissed-off engineer to uncheck the "make Windows suck" box.
Troll my ASS, you troll-marking dipshit. By marking me a troll, you are saying it's OK for sysadmins to hold hostage their employers, the public, and the clients of government or business.
SHAME on you.
ANYone who is a sysadmin is quite likely in a VERY trusted position. IF such a person with SOOO much access and control decides to hold hostage and harm people, then even though such person might not have directly killed or mutilated anyone, his/her ACTION puts police, the public, and workers, even patients and other clients at risk. So, why should such a hostage-taker NOT be pummeled or beaten for the information and systems he/she admits to locking down?
Sure, the NSA or CIA might be able to unscrew the systems he screwed, but letting him off or punishing him is a circumstantial situation, just like court cases are. But if his supervisors or cowards or unions or others protect him for reasons of agenda, rather than business or government system continuity, then THEY are part of the problem.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
There's lots of examples of privatized water and other similar services, generally in the 3rd world.
Can you cite an example of privatizing water or other "natural monopolies" that wasn't an unmitigated disaster for the citizens of that jurisdiction?
I don't know about the US postal service, but up here in Canada, it's fine.
How about schools? you privatize schools, and then only the wealthy go to school. Goodbye even the pretense of social mobility in that case.
The plural form of "anecdote" is "anecdotes", not "evidence".