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Judge Won't Lower $5M Bail For Jailed SF IT Admin
snydeq writes "San Francisco County Judge Charles Haines has denied Terry Childs' motion to reduce his $5 million bail, alluding to 'public security concerns,' according to Richard Shikman, who is representing Childs in court. The ruling comes in the wake of a recent decision to drop three of the four changes that have been levied against Childs, who has spent the past 14 months in jail. The fourth charge — that Childs violated a California statute regarding illegal denial of service for the San Francisco FiberWAN — has been called into question by those closely monitoring the case. As a point of comparison, the San Francisco Felony Bail Schedule lists a $1 million bail for the most serious crimes, such as sexual assault of a child, aggravated arson, or kidnapping for ransom. Prosecutors have argued that the bail is appropriate because, if released, Childs could cause damage to San Francisco's network."
Childs could cause damage to San Francisco's network.
But, but... think of the children
He's a danger to their network only if no one has yet changed the passwords on the routers and other equipment.
Truth, Justice. Or the American Way.
Anybody who knows about computers has to be kept away from them, else they might cast spells on the rest of us.
maybe he should get his money's worth and go sexually assault five children then...
> Prosecutors have argued that the bail is appropriate because, if released, Childs could cause damage to San Francisco's network.
It sounds like they have zero confidence in whoever is now in charge of securing their network.
1 in 4 Maine children in struggle with hunger.
The incompetence of the legal system has no lower bound.
Since I can't mod you down, I'll just note that they've now had over a year to change the passwords and otherwise secure the allegedly compromised LAN.
I don't think the judge understands the nature of network security, which is understandable since he isn't an IT guy......but no doubt the prosecuting attorney was pushing to distort the issue to make him look as dangerous as possible. What if he is not guilty, are they still going to keep him in jail because he might be dangerous? Furthermore, if he DOES damage the network, can't they just charge him for that crime at that time? It's not like he can cause irreparable damage, as murdering someone might.
One thing I don't understand is why this guy doesn't exercise his right to a speedy trial. He's already been punished enough considering all the evidence I've seen suggests he is innocent. Maybe he is getting some kind of zen experience living in jail and he actually likes it or something. From what I've heard from some sysadmins, living in jail can't be much worse than that job.
Qxe4
You are right, any nutso can get a sniper rifle, case full of ammo, and take out half a campus from the church tower. It's the really dangerous folk, like the ones who haven't had access to your network in the past year (which you somehow haven't secured on your own because you are too fucking stupid) that are the real danger to society at large.
Here's a tip for the Judge, if there is still something out there on SF's network that Childs actually could manipulate with greater access or affect than a normal citizen, then the folk who should be in jail are the ones who cleaned up the mess.
Prosecutors have argued that the bail is appropriate because, if released, Childs could cause damage to San Francisco's network.
So if the 4th charge is dropped and he is freed, can they keep him jailed? He could, at that point, still cause the same damage that he can now.
But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.
I think the problem is they know he's not going to be convicted of anything in the end. So the judge is trying to send a message to people who might be inclined to do the same thing.
"We can get you. We don't need to actually convict you, either. We can get you anyway."
Doesn't this guy have a sixth amendment right to a speedy trial?
Besides (and Google may have led me the wrong CA statute) but it look like the penalty for the remaining charge could be as little as a $5,000 fine. It also seems to have an out:
"Subdivision (c) does not apply to punish any acts which are committed by a person within the scope of his or her lawful employment. For purposes of this section, a person acts within the scope of his or her employment when he or she performs acts which are reasonably necessary to the performance of his or her work assignment."
When I was a corporate IT guy (about 3 years in the middle of about 16 years as a consultant), I took responsibility over a large part of the network in a multi facility health care business. This wasn't life or death stuff, but network outages did cause problems with appointments and general "face" of the corporation. When I came on board, the network was down a lot. No change control, no "chief" in charge of the network, and about 9 people mucking with stuff constantly.
I put my job on the line, in exchange for FULL control of that system (It was a 85 server Netware + Groupwise environment). The first thing I did was take *everyone's* admin away, removed "admin" from supervisory rights to the tree. I then doled out the appropriate levels of access to the security team (read new users, password resetters), put in a hidden OU with a tree supervisor in it and then wrote the "master" admin/login information down. Lightly, in pencil. Folded it up, put it in an envelope with a tamper seal, that went into another tamper evident envelope and that went into the safe. Every month or two I changed the password and replaced the envelope.
That was in case I died, they could easily get in. That is what Terry should have done. Then it wouldn't have come to this - he might have gotten sacked, and/or lost control over what he considered to be his "creation" -- but he wouldn't be rotting in jail....
= Grow a brain...
I hope it was all worth it for him. Sounds like there's not much of a case against him, but I have a hard time feeling any sympathy for him.
While it seems the prosecutors in this case are overreacting (why's this even a criminal case?), what I find curious is that there was no scheme to retrieve the passwords if Childs were to pass away accidentally (no HBB protection). Passwords written on paper in a safe, safety deposit box or similar, or the passphrase to Password Safe written down somewhere secure.
It's pretty stupid to have to physically access all the routers to reset passwords in the event that the network admin dies or quits in fury. Just write the procedure into the admin's job description.
testing 1 2 3
Maybe I don't remember HS Civic's very well but I thought the point of bail was ONLY to prevent flight, not that it had been redefined to be large as a result of danger the innocent (until proved otherwise) person poses. He's being jailed not because he's a flight risk but because of political posturing by the DA, that is a serious miscarriage of justice. I don't have a lot of sympathy for the guy but bail is clearly being misused here.
it's not at all inconceivable that Childs could cause damage to that network if he chose to do so.
You are correct, of course. Childs should be immediately lobotomized, or if the procedure appears to be unreliable then he should be just killed. He knows too much and can never be released. His possible future crime must be prevented at any cost. Same applies to all future sysadmins of SF - once they learn the network (a few weeks on the job, perhaps) they will have to be destroyed.
maybe Childs just needs free accomodation for a while.
y'know, make your pile, put it in a high-interest bank account, then live on the state's dime for a few years.
FGD 135
Bail exists to a) manage flight risk and b) prevent repeat occurrences of the same crime. So unless he decides to not tell the city the password again(which they now know), it's not even possible to repeat the "crime".
So to put it in perspective, bail is set at $5 Mill because he would only tell the password to the Mayor, which is apparently a crime 5x more severe than killing someone, even though it can't exactly be repeated.
"He might do damage in some other way which has nothing to do with what we're charging him for.", is NOT a reason to set bail ludicrously high. Maybe the guy's a dick, maybe he even did some stuff wrong, but he's definitely having his rights stepped on now.
IANAL, etc. etc.
--Not to be worried, Pitr fix.
and why would he? that would just make his life worse. from what I read, it appears that he was responsible for the networking running as smooth as it was. If I'm not mistaken, he's the one that planned the network and set it up right. And one of the first things that came to light when this bubble bursted, was that despite the missing passwords, the network was running pretty well.
Onda Technology Institute
This whole thing has seemed overblown from the get go to me. I thought it had been cleared up a while back ..obviously not. My guess is that he stepped on some politician's/power broker's toes somehow, and "they" are punishing him this way; it's a classic corrupt government gambit. Vindictive state and local politicos have a lot of ways to screw people who lack friends in high places. Wonder what the poor bastard did, refuse to help some honcho spy on or frame someone?.
If you want your life to be different, live it differently.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Judge needs to be removed and disbarred.
The entire concept of 'bail' is ridiculous. Money paid should not have any effect on whether a person is in or out of jail.
He better sue the city big time as 14 months in jail looks bad resume and some places he will not get pass HR with that. Other jobs as well will question the big job gap maybe not the IT guy but likely the PHB will.
If they can't inventory and find all the equipment in their facilities, that's not Child's problem, they've had 2 years to do all the legwork, bookkeeping and maintenance they need, there are no valid excuses for management to not have a handle on things after such a long period of time.
Hardly anyone is good enough to remember lists of equipment in their head, especially not after two years.
They don't necessarily have to know what all the equipment is, also: they just need to restrict access.
For example: there's no reason people on the internet should be allowed to telnet to routers.
Beyond that, they just need to identify all other ingres points to their network: every network connection they're paying for, every phone line/modem attached to core gear for OOB management, and make sure suitable access restrictions are in place at various control points.
Security is not hard. And it's absolutely essential in an important network, even with no "Childs".
The pervert/sickos they just caught in SF had their bail set at $500,000 each
for imprisoning and raping kids for 20 years
10% of what this admins bail is set at
good to see the USA court has its priorities set
raping kids is only 10% of the risk to society than this guy?
it's not at all inconceivable that Childs could cause damage to that network if he chose to do so.
It's not at all inconceivable that the average slashdot reader could damage the network if he chose to do so (with some basic research + social engineering, to gather some general info).
In assessing risk, one considers not only the magnitude of harm, but also the probability that the harm will be realized. Prosecutors could, instead, argue not that the system is more valuable than human life, but that it is vastly more likely that Child's would succeed in damaging it if released on bail than it is that the average (e.g.) murder suspect would succeed in killing while on bail.
Its also possible that they could argue that the system is used for critical functions related to public safety, so that disruption could directly have consequences for safety and even human life.
I agree with a bit of what you've said, but I totally disagree with the last two sentence in your post... and since you weren't there how would you know?
So what, you think this man is sitting in jail all of this time and wouldn't hand the password over to someone *just to be a dick*?
It is true that every place has politics, and that you have to be mindful of them, and sometimes the most technically gifted among us seem to (at times, but not everyone and not always) be short of the political and "working well with others" side of things, but none of that means he was all in the wrong, or that there isn't more to the story, or that the people who actually treated this like a pissing match and blew it all out of proportion aren't the ones who are really in the wrong here. Maybe it could have been handled differently, but maybe not....
Just because in a similar circumstance you or many other people might back down, doesn't mean he was wrong....I think he thought he was absolutely doing what was right and what was in the best interests of the city, I think that there were some things going on that shouldn't have been and he took a principled stand ..... The way he has been treated in court, the fact that 3 of the 4 changes have been dropped and the remaining charge is completely dubious and he *STILL* is being held with 5M bail tells me that something isn't right here...Even if he DID act like a total asshole (which I tend to think is not the case), that bail is still completely inappropriate.
I really don't think he'll have a hard time getting work after this. It's possible he won't be able to work for a municipality or certain corporations, but so what...
In their eyes the network is more important that human life...certainly. Of course. I can't believe you would even question this.
Legally you can insist that the trial go forward in a timely manner
You can insist all you want, if nothing happens, what then? It took Jose Padilla two years to get his incarceration heard by the Supreme Court, at which point the Bush administration finally got around to slapping some conspiracy to murder charge on him so the SCOTUS said "well, it looks like they're going to do something now so I guess it's speedy enough". Basically, in order to save us from Teh Terrists, the Supreme Court declared that "speedy" means "eventually". This guy has charges against him, so I'm sure when his case was finally heard the Supreme Court would say "well, they're working on it, at least you've been charged with a crime, so your case is speedier than Jose Padilla's was."
Down here in Texas we have people sitting in jail waiting for trial for minor misdemeanors who have already spent more time in jail than the maximum sentence for their crime. I suppose if they had a lawyer they could try to get out of jail on speedy trial grounds, then again, if they had money for a lawyer, they'd probably have just paid the bondsman.
That said, if I were him, I'd sit tight and wait for the idiots running the network to self destruct on their own, rather than have the network go down sometime after I was released and get blamed for it.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
House arrest, and GPS monitor. Any damage to their network can easily be traced to an IP address, which if he can't move with freedom, makes it pretty easy to identify if it came from his computer. (I'm assuming they can't restrict his access to computer.) If he does, charge him with another crime. If he were to attack the network under such conditions, he'd be demonstrating his utter desire for being raped in prison, as I can't think of any other sane reason why he'd do it. Only reason bond should be denied is flight risk or a risk to further harm against a human victim/witness.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
Phillip Garrido is only being held on $1 million bail. Which one do you think can do more damage if released, Childs or Garrido? If you answered "Childs", I would insist your priorities are seriously fucked up.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Since when is behaving like a raging asshole a crime?
Office politics can get you fired. They can't get you locked up.
I am officially gone from
... when he has to register as a Childs offender.
Anybody want a peanut?
Someone send over 63 pirated songs then.
again.. been in jail for a year and they don't KNOW they have properly locked him out... THAT is criminally negligent when they know a potential threat to the city and they're not stopping it.
Is there anything that can be done for him?
As a SysAd and citizen I find this case to be disturbing. I don't know if visiting him in jail would be helpful.
Do they even let one have cookies in there? Cookies may not help him or his case, but cookies can taste good.
20 characters max for the password? How will I use my favorite poems as passwords?
The thing is, in most cases defendants don't exercise their speedy trial right. The reason is that they want time to prepare their defense. Also cases don't tend to take massive amounts of time to prepare all that often. However, in many states (I don't know about California) there are specific laws for speedy trial and they are enforced. There is a case I'm aware of in Arizona (a DUI) that is going to get dismissed on speedy trial grounds if the state doesn't have their act together in a hurry.
I don't know what is going on with this case, but the idea that speedy trial is a pipe dream is BS. For the most part it simply isn't an issue, the defense is fine with taking some time to prepare and the trial happens under the speedy trial statute anyhow. Speedy trial doesn't mean next week, it means in a reasonable amount of time. In the case of Arizona law, it's 6 months.
Ask an actuary the monetary value of one human life. Prepare to feel sad (or angry).
he could even claim he's still an employee and due back wages. The original fight was because he was an ass to a new woman manager and she walked to her boss and claimed "sex harassment". The manager tried to fire him without following city process in the first place... and didn't follow legal process to get the passwords in the second place... he could probably go back to the city worker's union and actually win his job back for managerial misconduct if charges don't stick!!!! After all he hasn't even had 3 officially written strikes yet!!!
He may be an ass, but he's been smart enough to follow the City's work rules to the letter.... it's the management that's skipping steps in the written HR process.
Some basic research : google for the url to be slashdotted... Check
Social Engineering : Find some crap to ask slashdot... Check
See the hardware melt... Yup, check.
An the "security policy" is why the last charge will have to be dropped or will fail and the counter-suite for malicious wrongful dismissal and arrest, and detention should be filed.
unfortunately, this case has been made into an "honor" case.
america (and a lot of countries, in fact) refuse to ever say 'Im sorry, I was wrong'.
pigheaded mutherfuckers are the ones who are truly the criminals. they put a man in jail for no good reason, kept him there WAY too long and now have egg on their face so much they are backed into a corner. they refuse to say 'we were wrong'.
so its a case of 'saving face'. something I'd expect a bit more from the far east than the US. ;(
big boys with power and an ego that can't be stopped.
we're fucked, with people like this running the country.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
...is going to work for a bunch of self-declared viciously stupid assholes and risk jail time for doing their job right?
Which requires them to know what all of the equipment is, and potentially all of the software installed in all of it. Information for which Childs was supposed to be the source.
I'm not saying that the $5 million bail is right, but it's not at all inconceivable that Childs could cause damage to that network if he chose to do so.
Childs should not be the "source" of knowledge on their equipment. Their internal inventory and documentation policies are the source for that information. Childs designed and maintained the network, he did document it, even going so far as to Copyright the network design. Childs even followed policy when he refused to disclose his password to members of the San Francisco Police Department, representatives from HR, and an unknown group of people on the phone.
San Francisco government policy, from http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/dtis/coit/Policies_Forms/CCISDA_security.pdf
"Password Policy"
As such, all County employees (including contractors, vendors, and temporary staff with access to County systems) are responsible for taking the appropriate steps, as outlined below, to select and secure their passwords.
All system-level passwords (e.g., root, enable, NT admin, application administration accounts, etc.) must be changed on at least a monthly basis"
"Do not share County passwords with anyone, including administrative assistants or secretaries.
All passwords are to be treated as sensitive, confidential County information.
Here is a list of things to avoid
-Telling your boss your password.
-Talking about a password in front of others.
-Telling your co-workers your password while on vacation."
This is a corrupt government using its influence over the DA and judicial appointees to persecute Mr. Childs. After this last charge is throw out, Mr. Childs will undoubtedly counter-sue in a different jurisdiction to stay clear of the corruption in the SF government.
You get bonus points for finding a way to do it without breaking the law, or doing anything really evil...
(As long as you don't post the URL for the purpose of melting the hardware, and you did indeed find it when searching for something in Google, that is. :))
make it 10 million.
--edfardos
An idiot with a backhoe could damage the network. Justice is neither being done nor being seen to be done.
Yeah, his career's shot.
If they drop the 4th charge, too, he ought to get lost wages, some sort of additional compensation for being STUCK IN GODDAMN JAIL FOR 14 MONTHS, and the difference between the amount he'd have made in his projected, optimal career path and what he'll make working at Burger King. Then double it. Call that part the "douchebag tax".
Really, from how this case has been covered, sounds like the average adult could bring the entire network down by yelling really loudly into an electrical socket.
big boys with power and an ego that can't be stopped.
we're fucked, with people like this running the country.
Yep; and you can bet that they're laughing their heads off over the fact that many of the sheep in America keep pointing at the Chinese government and saying, "But thank God we're still free!"
China is going to end up looking liberal compared to America in the end. You wait.
Childs might disagree with you on that one.
When ordinary citizens break the law, they get punished, often going to jail. When officers of the state violate citizen's constitutional rights, violations that have a much more resounding effect on society, the violations go largely ignored, rarely resulting in penalties, and even rarer that those officers will see any jail time. It is unfair and fucked up, the kind of system the founders wanted to prevent. IMO, if a civil servant (from the bottom to the top) blatantly violates the constitutional rights of a citizen, it should be prosecuted. Of course that will never happen, but one can dream.
On one charge? This looks _very_ fishy. Conditions on bail would certainly include no computer use. I suspect the real motive for the DA is to use incarceration as pressure for some sort of plea bargain. Any bargain, because their case is weak / non-existant. Highly corrupt.
The DA has to pressure, because if he does NOT cave, they're facing a multi-million $ lawsuit for wrongful (or even malicious where less would be protected by privilige) prosecution. This will ruin careers. As it should.
I dunno - I was in San Francisco with my wife a few weeks ago, it was really beautiful, and we had a great time. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves too!
No problem driving or parking (ok California drivers in general are pretty aggro, but) and no more homeless folks than I see here in Denver...
Not gonna move there, or break into any city routers, but all in all, very pleasant.
Ask Me About... The 80's!
Turns out the password was "childs".
Who would've guessed?
I guess if spamming fistr pots and goatze links counts as damaging the network.
I'm pretty sure he isn't laughing his ass off while sitting in jail after 14 months. Although there's a good chance he will be once this is done, and he's won his lawsuit against the city and gotten the DA disbarred.
The court sided with the D.A. and the city.
When the high bail was granted and when the high bail was sustained.
Spending 14 months in a 6x8 cell fantasizing over the pot over the nonexistent pot of gold at the end of this rainbow is just plain nuts.
His duty to help them by giving them passwords and other confidential information ALSO ended when his employment contract ended. That's what the law says.
I want to see some solid proof for this. Because I am betting there are residual obligations under his contract - or that his contract was never properly terminated.
Childs accused his managers of "gross incompetence," Ugh Duh, don't he read his daily Dilbert's that's how the world is.
I don't see why this is still up. If most of the IT community with any sense of self respect boycotted the entire city, the problem would evaporate within two weeks. Any professional with even an ounce of self respect should be refusing to service any aspect which receives funding, or inherits legal obligations from any portion of the city. They've already demonstrated they're willing to prosecute someone for doing their job and following policy.
I don't care if the guys supervisor told him to hand over the password--his supervisor was not in a position of authority to make such a demand. And even if he *was*, the charges and accusations they leveled demonstrated that they behaved with a callous lack of professional ethics, and abuse of power intended to crush the will of this man, instead of simply punishing him according to the rule of law. The charges were clearly trumped up--so such an extent that even the biased judge had no choice but to throw them out.
Refuse to consult or provide services to anyone associated with the city until they repay Childs and punish those responsible for this abuse of authority. They've already engaged in miscarriage of justice, and it's already painfully clear neither the DA nor the judge will be held accountable.
Nah, If anything, curiosity will get him a few interviews. If the competence story is true, or he can hide any assholish tendencies for long enough to look like he is, he might even be able to upgrade.
That in no way excuses the prison time or high bail. There is much douchebaggery going on here, and the unfortunate part is that it will all be paid for by the citizens of SF in the end.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
>> he appears to have behaved like a raging asshole ... which would coincide with my experiences of the usual attitude of nearly all sys admins at the companies I've worked at over the last 30+ years.
maybe he can work at felony franks
Bail appeals (using "appeal" loosely) are usually reserved for the very rich, because they are usually a big waste of time. They are a waste of time because the trial judge is invested with a very large dollop of discretion in matters of bail. Here, the big bail doesn't seem to have too much to do with the charge that the defendant is being detained on. It's kind of like holding me on thirty gazillion dollars bail for a driving while license suspended charge because the judge is concerned that I am going to vandalize my neighbor's Rolls Royce.
This case sucks because the poor bastard has to rot in jail while his lawyers are preparing his defense. If he had money, his experts would be done by now and the State would have, long ago, had its back against the wall scrambling to try to put their bullshit case together.
I bet that the County Attorney depended on the City's experts (rather than his own, independent, experts) when he filed charges. That's reasonable, but you'd hope they'd have their own independent experts on board by now. Too bad nobody's Groklawing for the defendant.
Well, tradition for this is to bake him a cake with a file in it.
If that fails, then you and your buddies saddle up your horses and a spare one for him, then pull the window bars out.
Bonus points for shooting up the town marshal's office during the escape.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
What skilled, knowledgable, trained network administrator would work for them at this point?
Some may be willing to take a crappy job to put food on their kids table... but one that's likely to put you in jail for following their own proceedures?... I wouldn't do that to my kids.
How are they going to hire the new IT dude after this crap? I think some of the would-be applicants are heading for janitorial work so they can at least... not be in jail.
"They confiscated everything, even the stuff we didn't steal!"
The Hacker Manifesto
by
+++The Mentor+++
Written January 8, 1986
Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...
Damn kids. They're all alike.
But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
I am a hacker, enter my world...
Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...
Damn underachiever. They're all alike.
I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."
Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.
I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me.. Or thinks I'm a smart ass.. Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...
Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.
And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong..." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...
Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...
You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.
This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.
Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.
I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.
but it's not at all inconceivable that Childs could cause damage to that network if he chose to do so.
Estanislao, you need to turn yourself into the authorities because it is not inconceivable that you will commit a heinous crime of wanton murder if you choose to do so. Your guilty of thinking that.
Just callin' it like I see it.
"accused city hacker" instead of "the guy who built and maintained san francisco's networks for several years"?
"essentially commandeered the system" instead of "yeah, that was his JOB"?
with the city still trying to politically assassinate this guy, the judicial system still eager to help, and the press still spewing this ignorant garbage to the general public, why isn't the entire IT community out on the streets protesting for this guy?
I guess if spamming fistr pots and goatze links counts as damaging the network.
You make that sound like a bad thing.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
If he's cleared of all charges (either by them being dropped, dismissed or found not guilty), why should he be unable to work for a municipality? Are they allowed to discriminate against people who have been cleared of all charges? They aren't allowed to discriminate against you because of race, gender, religion or have a handicap, so why should they be allowed to discriminate against someone who the judicial system has deemed innocent?
...why should they be allowed to discriminate against someone who the judicial system has deemed innocent?
The judicial system to the best of my knowledge never deems anyone innocent. The best you can hope for is to be declared Not Guilty, or to have the charges dropped. There is also something when a charge was filed against the wrong person. Kinda like having charges transferred from one person to another. (I can't recall what that is called though...)
The California legal system leaves me speechless... almost...SF alone supports gang members who eventually shoot citizens, and as a business, you can get sued frivolously for having a door handle 2 cm higher then code. Child rapes are so common that they need an Amber Alert System 24x7 to try and slow it down, and now a network admin can't get out of jail for less then 5mil - all while Gov. Taxinator prepares to release tens of thousands of convicts onto the streets before serving their full sentences. An earthquake would be a blessing at this point, especially if the epicenter were the capital building in Sacramento.
I think therefore I can't be ~TTNH
I'll grant you that they don't deem anyone innocent, but by those standards, we could just dream up charges against anyone we don't like for any kind of paedophilia charges, couldn't we?
Would probably be a better society if everyone had been accused of child molestation. Might make everyone think twice before judging them.
Doesn't matter. You're innocent till proven guilty (beyond reasonable doubt). Anything other than guilty is innocent.
Scotland is different. Thy have a third verdict, not proven. Rumour has it this is equivalent to "not guilty but don't do it again".
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
If this story is any indication, SF isn't even a democracy anymore; it is a dictatorial oligarchy.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
Just admit that he was presumed guilty before a trial you incompetent fools.
My understanding is that bail isn't meant to be punitive (after all the accused hasn't been convicted yet), just sufficient to ensure that they will show up for court. Larger crimes don't have larger bail because the cases are more important, but because the sentences associated with a conviction are larger so there is a larger incentive to skip out on your trial. So is he likely to get five times the sentence of a murderer? Heck I'd be surprised if after the appeals process if he even gets more than time served and a fine. Of course how much of his life and money will have been pissed away in jail and given to lawyers will be anyone's guess.
It is incredible that the people responsible for the network today cannot secure the network well enough to keep Childs out and they are allowed to keep their jobs. If they can keep Childs away from the physical equipment, passwords are all that is necessary to lock things down. Do the people in charge have any dignity? It is about time we start publishing the names of the people who are now responsible who cannot secure this network. The fact that he seems to be needed to be kept in jail for the safety of the network proves every word he said about the incompetent people involved. This situation is so bizarre that it is even stranger than my first wife, and that is saying something.
my my how Minority Report of you :)
R.Morton
modded quote "what's that he's talking about? Windows , Never had a problem with Windows till I tried to use it."
And that's why they can't just let him go and drop the charges. How much would you have to be paid to willingly give up your career, have your name smeared, and be put in jail with criminals for over a year. That is at least what this man is owed, in addition to punitive damages.
While he is awaiting trial and 'not innocent' it is hard to counter-sue. In that interim those involved may have moved to different positions, retire, lose their election, etc. Even if he wins a multi-million dollar countersuit, do you think anyone will be held personally responsible? What needs to happen but won't is that every single person involved in prosecuting him needs to be disbarred, removed from their employ, and after being put in jail for a similar period and slapped with a criminal record, be unable to get a job running the city's street sweepers.
Proof again, that our justice system is run by incompetent twads, who do not ever take the time to keep themselves
up to date with today's technology, especially when they are RULING on it...
It's not because he is behind bars that he can't get to that fiber network and shut it down.
Take this into consideration next time (Judge moron!)...he withheld the network password, not shut it down, and gave the password to the only person whom he thought he could trust, the governor ( or mayor? i forget)...which was a good thing on his part, being he felt there was a breach of trust as to who had access to this password.
Secondly, if he really wanted to get back with revenge in mind, he could give access to a backdoor to anyone who might be savy enough to help him,even though he would still be behind bars. A password can be written down, and mailed...so if he is not there to cancel the letter being transmitted on a certain date, because he was behind bars, this revenge letter could make its way into the hands of russian mafia...who then would REALLY f*ck things up, which would then be not his fault, he had no access to a computer at the time to do these dirty deeds, he would not be held accountable for anything that happened after that (unless the russian mafia were to actually get caught and have kept a copy of his letter to incriminate him!)
Seriously, James bondish I know, but sooooo easy to do, its sad that the judge thinks he is doing good in this case!
Taken out back and shot is significantly to good for the group of idiots that did this to him. Problem is most of them are probably elected and cant be sued personally. In the end I hope he never has to work again as that might be problematic.
No sir I dont like it.
Just in legal fees. Not to mention being stigmatized even if cleared of all charges. And unable to earn a living during this trial. If he had a family, his wife would have probably divorced him and taken the kids. They wrecked his life, because they are corrupt. Because they were embarrassed by him, by the press around it.
To honor the deeply corrupt SF government, the real life Hal Holbrooks who think they ARE the law, I give you Dirty Harry...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OFnOaPDerw&feature=related
What evidence is there that Childs' refused to hand over these alleged passwords, to whom did he refuse to hand over passwords and finally why didn't those with physical access change the passwords? And what ever happened to the accusations that he:
..
...
Configured the routers and switches with 'no service password-recovery, removed the start-up configuration from some devices, created unauthorized wireless access to the FiberWAN, possessed lists of usernames and passwords, including his supervisors, installed sniffers on the network, had a prior arrest record for aggravated burglary
Where did all this go or what it merely the prosecution flinging dirt. So basically we have Childs being locked up and his character being trashed until he cops a plea to a bogus charge. Lucky he don't live in communist China
"But one charge remains: the charge that Childs violated a California statute regarding illegal denial of service for the San Francisco FiberWAN"
An African or European human?
Also, even less seriously, http://www.humanforsale.com/
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Keeping a man under custody or outrageous bail under nothing more than the theory that they have the power to do harm if they wished to do harm is a real nut job way of doing business. It would be another matter if the man were making threats that he would screw up the system. But punishing people simply because they have an ability is absurd. Can you picture a man being held under absurdly high bail simply because he is known to be a great shot with a gun? After all, if he wanted to kill someone he would be far more able to do it than most people. So what's next? Perhaps we need to take all arrestees to the shooting range to make sure they are bad shots before they are given bail.
...how is it theft of service?
I don't think the JAG core will let some sit in jail for that long + with no trial and weak evidence. Hell a captain can't just ask you for the missile key with out the right say from the chain of command.
I tried yelling really loudly into an electric socket... then I put my ear up close to it..
I didn't hear anything breaking at all, I just heard a strange voice say "Hello, did you try turning it off and on again" followed by some static "Hey, watch out, we know where you live"
Any ideas what I could have done wrong? Is there a tuning knob somewhere on this thing? (EG)
released LIVE passwords to the LIVE and sensitive system, to public court, as evidence ?
if those MORONS said that the world was round, i would be inclined to believe it was flat. i stressed the word MORON many times, because, there can be no other explanation for their failure in logic, and their sheer incompetence, than a mental handicap.
Read radical news here
I was thinking along the same lines. this judge is clearly making himself and the city more vulnerable to him suing the pants off the lot of them. This is clearly a violation of excessive bail, and thus violates his Constitutional rights. He needs some high powered litigator to go after these guys. I don't see how he can lose. Someone needs to show this judge and DA the light. I was going to say something else, but I wouldn't want to be locked up for some trumped up BS just for political speech.
Welcome to the New and Improved USA, where Free Speech is now a crime. Home of the despoitic rulers, and increasingly severe Police State.