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Rough Justice For Terry Childs

Posted by timothy on from the might-not-like-the-aftershocks dept.

snydeq writes "Deep End's Paul Venezia sees significant negative ramifications for IT admins in the wake of yesterday's guilty verdict for Terry Childs on a count of 'denial of service.' Assuming the verdict is correct, Venezia writes, 'shouldn't the letter of the law be applied to other "denial of service" problems caused by the city while they pursued this case? In particular, to the person or persons who released hundreds of passwords in public court filings in 2008 for causing a denial of service for the city's widespread VPN services? After all, once the story broke that a large list of usernames and passwords had been released to the public, the city had to take down its VPN services for days while they reset every password and communicated those changes to the users.' Worse, if upheld on appeal, the verdict puts a vast number of IT admins at risk. 'There are suddenly thousands of IT workers all over the country that are now guilty of this crime in a vast number of ways. If the letter of the law is what convicted Terry Childs, then the law is simply wrong.'"

4 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. Re:If I were taking an IT Admin position... by westlake · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It would absolve me from prosecution unless I violated any of the very specific rules that were listed.

    The geek isn't always very good at distinguishing between civil and criminal actions. The question then becomes prosecution by who and under what set of rules.

    The computer networks that sustain the city of San Francisco belong to the city of San Francisco. No court can allow them to be held hostage to any single individual. Not the system administrator. Not the mayor. Not anyone.

             

  2. Re:If I were taking an IT Admin position... by timmarhy · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    the owners of the equipment are asking for the password to their own gear, explain how the fuck that's breaking the law, and i want to see the section quoted as to what law it is.

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  3. Re:If I were taking an IT Admin position... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    think I would want to draft up a very clear - and legally binding - agreement that I would want my superiors in management to sign on behalf of the company.

    Better still, sysadmins need to get unionized.

    Then, employers at least have to think twice before fucking with you. Until they do organize, they're not going to be treated as well as waste disposal workers (garbage men).

    But that would require sysadmins to be able to work together for a common good, and sysadmins generally don't like to work with anyone, especially other sysadmins.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. Re:qual application of justice??? LOL by Rob_Bryerton · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Awwww, look at the cute little cynical nerd & how he rails against THE MAN. How original.