Childs resented management, refused to reveal password
By: Tamara Barak Aparton
Examiner Staff Writer
December 16, 2008
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| Terry Childs, a 43-year-old former San Francisco Department of Telecommunications and Information Services network engineer, is charged with tampering with The City's computer network. He is shown here in San Francisco Superior Court on the first day of his preliminary hearing on Monday. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — The man accused of hijacking San Francisco’s computer system for a week earlier this year grew increasingly possessive of the network he built in the face of mounting hostility toward his boss, testimony from a former co-worker revealed Monday.
The testimony provided the first details in the case against Terry Childs, 43, the former computer network administrator accused of using a private password to lock all other administrators out of The City’s FiberWAN network between June 20 and July 10. The system was only unlocked after Childs revealed the password to Mayor Gavin Newsom during a jailhouse meeting.
The preliminary hearing in Child’s case began Monday in San Francisco Superior Court. Childs, of Pittsburg, is facing up to seven years in state prison on four felony counts of tampering with the network; he has denied the charges.
Glacier Rodriguez Ybanez, a senior network engineer for The City who formerly reported to Childs, was the sole witness called during the hearing.
Ybanez said he enjoyed a good working relationship with Childs. In 2005, the two worked together to build FiberWAN, which links nearly all departments electronically. But after three months, Ybanez testified he was transferred to an unrelated project at the Police Department that lasted nearly five months.
Ybanez testified that both he and Childs had a poor relationship with Childs’ supervisor, Herb Tong. In explaining the transfer, Childs told Ybanez that Tong was “playing games” by assigning the extra project.
When Ybanez completed the project, he was surprised that Childs declined his request to return to work on FiberWAN. Childs, who frequently joked with Ybanez, told him he wasn’t allowed access for fear he would reveal the passwords to management.
“He said, ‘You’re too soft. You’ll give it up if you have to,’” Ybanez said. “I laughed, it was funny, but for a few minutes there, I was kind of dumbfounded.”
The problems between Childs and Tong increased after Tong asked Childs to add SpotShotter — police technology to detect gunfire — to the FiberWAN network.
“There was no plan, no equipment and no money,” Ybanez said. “Terry was pretty upset this was just dumped on him.”
In response, Childs began skipping meetings and stalling on the plan, Ybanez testified. He was eventually suspended, and later arrested, in July after he refused to turn over the passwords.
Childs’ attorney, Richard Shikman, has argued that Childs was simply trying to protect the system he built. Childs remains held in San Francisco County Jail on $5 million bail.
The preliminary hearing is expected to continue Tuesday.
