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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."
With backups no data will be lost. Oh, those are encrypted?
...you disable his account *before* you tell him he's fired.
TLR
A man no more knows his destiny than a tea leaf knows the history of the East India Company
Next thing you know, we'll have some dinosaurs on the Presidio.
Idiotic new law in 5...4...3...
We all dream about doing this to our ex-employer, but he's the one who's had the balls to do it!
No, not all of us do. Especially those of us who don't do things that get ourselves fired.
This guy's the limit!
There was an unsuccessful attempt to fire him. The article also mentions that he was essentially spying on people to learn things being said about him.
Especially when it makes a crime a Felony. That is one of the four felonies charged to him. The other three are all related to tampering with a computer network.
While this guy is obviously an idiot for thinking he could blackmail a government entity I am quite pleased the security on the system is sufficient to make it hard to get into when strong security is put into place. In other words, nothing annoys me more than so called secured systems having some means of password decryption, let alone the ones that allow admins to see them plain text.
what is going to interest me is how many years they will attempt to land on him. Just how offensive to society is this type of crime versus murder or rape. It seems that every new crime invented by the government gets stronger penalties than existing ones; if only to make it appear more valid. After all the penalty wouldn't be so severe if it were not really a crime now would it?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Large municipal department of technology seeking software engineer for a multimillion-dollar computer system. At least 5 years of previous experience required. Must be able to gain administrative access to a system where the password is not known. Hiring immediately!
If you need a recognized code of ethics to tell you that sabotaging your ex-employer's system isn't right, then no code of ethics can help you. Unfortunately this guy screws it up for all of the honest techs who work hard to earn the trust which they need for doing their jobs.
I've been in a position to do this (I was still rooted from home in three systems, and though they changed the passwords, they didn't kick active sessions) and all I did was change the MOTD to "When firing a user with root access, make sure to abort existing sessions."
Professionalism is key if you expect to be trusted with access to big sexy systems.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Thats why you run unpatched windows, it will take only 4 minutes to get access.
Number one rule in IT. If i have PHYSICAL access to a system i can get in. Some way, some how.
Government Agency rule number one: If I have PHYSICAL access to a criminal, I can get information. Some way, some how.
A reputation, based on people with a serious ideological axe to grind. Blind faith in the market producing magical efficiency gains is contrary to everything I have seen during my professional life, both in the public and private sector. From my perspective, I have never seen one bit of evidence to show there is any truth to it outside the imaginations of Tory politicians.
Furthermore, people like you who are so besotted with 'market forces' did attempt to introduce them to public services in the UK, and it has been an unmitigated disaster. The inability of internal prices to truly reflect the quality of services has resulted in huge waste, massive bureaucracy and a decline of standards. Now, the ideologues are at it again trying to push for a new round of 'targets' in the NHS. They never learn.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
What do you recommend they do next time, use a crystal ball or ouija board to predict who's going to pull such a stunt?
Minority Report for system administration activities? Sweet! ;-)
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
I didn't actually intend to. This was about 15 years ago. I got hired to take care of payroll at a warehouse, which was a completely paper-based process. I suggested that I could transfer the whole operation onto a computer and be more efficient. They said go ahead, but for security be sure to password protect it.
It ended up taking me only a couple of hours to do what had been an all-day job, and naively I told them this and suggested that there were other areas of operation in the plant I could similarly improve. Instead, the next day they canned me - they wouldn't say why, only "It just isn't working out."
The day after that I was glumly poking through the classifieds when I got the call
"Hi, how are you doing?"
"Well, I'm unemployed. That doesn't help."
"Ah, yes... well. Say, you know your payroll system? It's password protected."
"Yes, I know. You asked me to do that." A little bubble of joy started in my chest.
"Well, could you tell me what the password is?"
"I could... but I don't work for you any more, do I?" Then I hung up.
Oh, all the raw data was still available on paper, but I'll bet it took them weeks to straighten it all out completely.
In the scenario you descibre, the streets would become choked with dirty, unsafe buses and traffic would grind to a halt. This, in fact, happens.
Like so many market fundamentalists, you just can't see how easily your ideology falls flat on its face in the real world, or you would've seen the flaw in your own argument.
You are essentially laying all inefficiency at the feet of the 'state' - i.e. any actor that isn't an entrepreneur - and then using that as 'proof' that the entrepreneur is more efficient. This is what people smarter than you refer to as 'circular logic'.
Perhaps, when you've grown up, experienced the real world a bit and stopped reading Ayn Rands bullshit, you might get a clue.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Firing someone for poor performance (as opposed to firing someone for a single unacceptable action) takes time....and MUCH coordination...at least everywhere that I have worked.
In a decently managed environment, the employee knows in advance that his management views his/her performance as unacceptable since the manager has discussed it with the employee and laid out a plan for improvement. Even an average employee could see the writing on the wall weeks/months in advance...but this individual was also using his administrative access to monitor related email messages.
If his group comprised even a moderately-sized MIS group, you could pull his admin responsibilities and transfer him to a role with lesser rights during the period of performance review and monitoring...but this individual was most likely hired to do this very specific job...and there may not have been another position in to which he could transition naturally...even temporarily.
My question - where are the backup tapes? Pull the tapes from a date prior to his manipulation of the system. Presumably, it should not be that long ago if they were ensuring that at least one other admin had routine access to the system. In such a case, they should have known within 24 hours that he had done something. If, on the other hand, he was a one man show, then I think that they are screwed until he gives up his password...which he will. Mark my word.
It's just not that easy for a sysadmin, especially a major one. For myself, I've got passwords, SSH-keys, and many other access points everywhere in my company. It's not because I want to screw with them, but because they tend to call me at all sorts of different times and I never know if I'll need secure access to the server.
So, routing rules from home. Public SSH keys on various border-servers with my USB-drive having the private keys, etc. They're all used for doing my job, and if I'm fired (not sure why I would be though) I'll just move on to the next one without tainting my career and doing something stupid to burn bridges. However, I could see a *bad* sysadmin using these same tools and more to entrench himself so deeply that you'd almost have to rebuild the entire infrastructure from scratch to find all the back-doors.
If this guy was a real dick (but a clever+smart one), knew it, knew he was going to be canned, and prepared for it... then how are you going to know that your authentication methods, your binaries, or even your kernels haven't been messed with in some way? MD5 sums only go so far when you have hundreds of systems tied together.
Here it is...
Dear Mr. Baker,
As an employee of an institution of higher education, I have few very basic expectations. Chief among these is that my direct superiors have an intellect that ranges above the common ground squirrel. After your consistent and annoying harassment of my co-workers and me during our commission of duties, I can only surmise that you are one of the few true genetic wastes of our time.
Asking me, a network administrator, to explain every nuance of everything I do each time you happen to stroll into my office is not only a waste of time, but also a waste of precious oxygen. I was hired because I know how to network computer systems, and you were apparently hired to provide amusement to your employees, who watch you vainly attempt to understand the concept of "cut and paste" as it is explained to you for the hundredth time.
You will never understand computers. Something as incredibly simple as binary still gives you too many options. You will also never understand why people hate you, but I am going to try and explain it to you, even though I am sure this will be just as effective as telling you what an IP is. Your shiny new iMac has more personality than you ever will.
You wander around the building all day, shiftlessly seeking fault in others. You have a sharp dressed, useless look about you that may have worked for your interview, but now that you actually have responsibility, you pawn it off on overworked staff, hoping their talent will cover for your glaring ineptitude. In a world of managerial evolution, you are the blue-green algae that everyone else eats and laughs at. Managers like you are a sad proof of the Dilbert principle.
Seeing as this situation is unlikely to change without you getting a full frontal lobotomy reversal, I am forced to tender my resignation; however, I have a few parting thoughts:
When someone calls you in reference to employment, it is illegal for you to give me a bad recommendation as I have consistently performed my duties and even more. The most you can say to hurt me is, "I prefer not to comment." To keep you honest, I will have friends randomly call you over the next couple of years, because I know you would be unable to do it on your own.
I have all the passwords to every account on the system and I know every password you have used for the last five years. If you decide to get cute, I will publish your "Favorites," which I conveniently saved when you made me "back up" your useless files. I do believe that terms like "Lolita" are not viewed favorably by the university administrations.
When you borrowed the digital camera to "take pictures of your mother's b-day," you neglected to mention that you were going to take nude pictures of yourself in the mirror. Then, like the techno-moron you are, you forgot to erase them. Suffice it to say, I have never seen such odd acts with a ketchup bottle. I assure you that those photos are being kept in safe places pending your authoring of a glowing letter of recommendation. (And, for once, would you please try to use spellcheck? I hate correcting your mistakes.)
I expect the letter of recommendation on my desk by 8:00 am tomorrow. One word of this to anybody and all of your twisted little repugnant obsessions will become public knowledge. Never f*ck with your systems administrator, Mr. Baker! They know what you do with all that free time!
Sincerely
David Blocker
Network Administrator
1. declare him a terrorist
2. torture him
3. ???? [redacted for national security reasons]
4. password!
If they were using symmetric cryptography correctly, it could be virtually impossible to recover any of the information without first recovering the password.
Actually, this is the perfect way to test the strength of symmetric encryption algorithms. For those cryptographers with tin-foil hats (http://www.schneier.com/essay-198.html), seeing how long it will take for various three lettered agencies to recover the data will illuminate a previously dark room containing the question, "How safe is your data really?" It seems to me that this guy is doing the whole cryptography community a favor.