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Terry Childs Case Puts All Admins In Danger
snydeq writes "Paul Venezia analyzes the four counts San Francisco has levied against Terry Childs, a case that curiously omits the charge of computer tampering, the very allegation that has kept Childs in jail for seven months and now appears too weak to present in court. Count 1 — 'disrupting or denying computer services' — is moot, according to Venezia, as the city's FiberWAN did not go down due to Childs' actions. Venezia writes, 'Childs' refusal to give up the passwords for several days in no way caused a disruption of the normal operation of the FiberWAN. In fact, it could be argued that his refusal actually prevented the disruption of normal network operation.' Counts 2 through 4 pertain to modems Childs had under his control, 'providing a means of accessing a computer, computer system, or computer network in violation of section 502,' according to case documents. As Venezia sees it, these counts too are spurious, as such devices are essential to the fulfillment of admin job requirements. 'If Childs is convicted on the modem charges, then just about every network administrator in the world could be charged with the same "crime,"' Venezia writes. All the authorities would have to do is 'point out that you have a modem or two, and suddenly you're wearing pinstripes of the jailhouse variety.'"
If you don't like what someone does, but strictly speaking it's not really illegal, then find something else they did, (something that maybe a lot of people do and get left alone for) that has some silly, overly-broad definitions you can twist, and soak him for that instead. (ether as substitute punishment for the former that you can't make stick, or just plain in retaliation for doing something you didn't like)
As usual, the legal system that makes me sick to my stomach some days.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
that's the point really. His keeping the passwords is really no different than a VP keeping a laptop or company automobile. There are several civil steps that need to be gone through before "keeping" something you were previously entitled to have and protect becomes "criminal".
Consider the case of loaning a car to your long term SO for many years, then the relationship goes south and you show up with the cops to take back the car she's had for several years. Yes, you can get it back, but the cops will tell you to get a judgment first and won't just let you take it. In the same way the new manager saw a "rogue" employee that was cut off, isolated, and anti-social and first tried to illegally fire him. When that didn't work, then he started harassing about the passwords and created a situation with the prosecutor to get the passwords or throw the guy in jail... a leap of about 6 other legal processes.
Like has been said before.. modems and back doors in your office or home office (if expected to work from home/call in) are quite common for admins. VPN access to servers for when they crash is common. Those don't really figure into the "criminal" part because they didn't ASK if he had them and didn't ASK him to return them... packing his cardboard box on the way out the door is not formally "asking". As far as wiping the configs, that was paranoid overkill, but considering how often city office property gets stolen, wiping the config keeps thieves from getting the network settings to the whole thing which is more valuable than any one office of downtime due to power failure.
"keys to the kingdom" passwords are quite common.. I'm the only person at my 1000 person company with ALL of a certain server's passwords plus some network ones. There's a small number of people I would release those to... if I was pre-accused of malicious intention before I even left I'd probably handle the transaction thru a lawyer.
Like he predicted, when the city hired consultants (again not thru a legal means, just some random company to "fix it") and they started breaking stuff they didn't understand isn't his problem... Remember he was accused of "damages" even though the manager had no cause to make that ... they only poor performance he demonstrated was being disgruntled. Assuming he was doing damage and calling the cops is bordering on criminal filing a false report.
The proper course of action would have been for the DA to sue him in small claims court for the password. Make a valid case and allow him his grievance before a judge, then honor the ruling. Then a judge would have thrown him in jail until he talked for contempt... there's no time limit on contempt, so no need to file other charges! Frankly they're not a good lawyer if they didn't think of the simplest legal thing first.
I can't believe this megomaniacal prima dona is now somehow the posterboy of the IT people. There were ways for this nutbar to get out of the quandary while still saving his ass. Instead, he holds a network [b]that does not belong to him[/b] for ransom.
Well, it's just like 1st Amendment cases involving pornography, marching down the street in neo-Nazi uniforms or hooded bedsheets, or the like. You have to fight the idiots who would deny basic rights or make a mockery of law unilaterally, even when they go after the dirtbags. Letting them ignore the law when they beat down the unpopular is just giving them a free pass to do the same to you in the future, when it strikes their fancy.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
After he is let go, he no longer has permission.
However, he cannot be prosecuted on the basis of actions he took at the time he had permission to take them.
There would be a 4 word phrase for that: ex post facto law. Explicitly prohibited by the constitution.
Along with Bills of Attainer, which is almost what throwing someone in jail without trial for a year with a $5 million bail amounts to, he has been declared guilty by the state and is being punished without trial.
A few years later when the finally gets a trial, they'll say "oops, my bad", and let him go, after using various means of persuasion to ensure he doesn't proceed with any lawsuit for the false imprisonment.
"By withholding information about the configuration, he stole from his employer on the way out."
I don't know about this Terry Child fellow or anything to do with what he's alleged to have done. But that is one bat-shit insane sentence.
Are you saying that an individual cannot just quit his or her job and walk out the door? And if they do should rot in jail and be stripped of all possessions? On the basis of a private companies say-so? WTF?? Who the fuck modded this bullshit up??
They fired him, he walked...but he's forever beholden to them and every employer he's ever worked for because he holds some knowledge about their network?
What a fucked up world you live in, sorry but you're a little fascist, any individual, from the CEO to the Janitor has every right to leave a position and never look back, if the world implemented your policy we'd all be too terrified to work for anyone! Some HR schmuck wants to fuck with you after you leave, HE DIDNT TELL US SOMETHING WE NEED PUT HIM IN JAIL AND STRIP HIM OF HIS POSSESSIONS! Jafiwam demands it!
You the only IT person for a small company and want to quit? TO BAD! Don't dare walk out the door, if you do according to Jafiwam the little fascist you deserve to rot in jail and have all your possessions stripped away from you. Oops didn't document what that script does, STEALING! JAIL FOR YOU. Didn't tell them about that Cronjob before you left? STEALING! Didn't document that object properly, didn't let them know about that revision, didn't pass on that message? STEALING, STEALING, STEALING!
Didn't write a 2000 page manifesto brain dumping every tiny little bit of trivia and knowledge that you have about their business, STEALING!
The idiocy is truly unbelievable around here sometimes.