SF Mayor Breaks Up IT Standoff

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom demonstrated his negotiating prowess July 22 by breaking a nine-day-long standoff between an overly protective city network administrator and the city's attorney and IT department.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Newsom obtained the access codes to the city's IT system switches and routers after conferring with embattled network administrator Terry Childs, who has been in jail since July 13 on four felony counts of computer tampering in lieu of $5 million bail.

Childs, a certified Cisco Systems network administrator, changed access passwords for administrators above him because he claimed they were negligent about viruses and malware getting into the system. When he was threatened with suspension and loss of his job for insubordination, he locked down the system and kept the access codes to himself.

Childs was the chief designer of the system's FiberWAN (Fibre Channel-connected WAN), which contains about 60 percent of the city's sensitive HR, payroll and other personal data. The system has been running on virtual autopilot for the last 10 days while Department of Technology head Ron Vinson and others have been trying to regain access. Vinson declined to return numerous messages left on his office phone by eWEEK.

Childs, 43, a resident of Pittsburg, Calif., pleaded not guilty in court July 17 at his arraignment. He will have a bail hearing July 23 in hopes of lowering the $5 million bail levied by a judge last week.

He has worked for the city for five years and makes $127,000 per year.

Last week, the network administrator gave city officials what turned out to be incorrect passwords. On July 21, Childs' defense attorney, Erin Crane, approached the mayor's office about a secret meeting with Newsom, the Chronicle reported.

The visit was so hush-hush that Newsom did not tell District Attorney Kamala Harris or law enforcement officials he was going to do it, Newsom spokesperson Nathan Ballard told the Chronicle.

The city system also handles confidential law enforcement documents, inmates' bookings, payroll records, and departmental e-mail. Apparently, it has no backdoor access, even for highly authorized administrators.

Cisco engineers brought in by the city worked for days trying to break Childs' codes but with only minor success.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phil Matier and Andrew Ross have more details on how the standoff ended here.