Great article on Terry Childs

[ifelloutofatree]

Here are a couple of links to an article on Tech Republic. As my training is in Network administration I found it particularly interesting and was wondering what other techs thought of the story, his side of it which seems vastly different to the authorities - opinions particularly from those of you in the US who are probably more familiar with it.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=509
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/career/?p=555&tag=nl.e101
http://weblog.infoworld.com/venezia/archives/020956.html

 

[NYJimbo]

Terry Childs sounds like a total asshole. He should have been replaced a long time before he got so much power. We have seen people like him in the past when I worked on Wall Street and you have to remove them as soon as possible or they poison everything with their ego.

 

[purple_minion]

The answer is simple since they are like most government and absolutely stupid. You don't demand passwords that only he has and then threaten to fire him anyway. COME ON! You call in some outside help and install a simple keylogger. You then wait a month or however long it is and recover those passwords and then you fire him. I mean jesus, you don't piss off the gunman and expect it to all work out ok.

 

[NWPhotog]

It's like a newer version of kevin mitnik of sorts.

Was Kevin actually employed by any of the companies he broke into?

 

[NYJimbo]

The answer is simple since they are like most government and absolutely stupid. You don't demand passwords that only he has and then threaten to fire him anyway. COME ON! You call in some outside help and install a simple keylogger. You then wait a month or however long it is and recover those passwords and then you fire him. I mean jesus, you don't piss off the gunman and expect it to all work out ok.

Yeah, go tell that to a company that needs the passwords TODAY. Do you really think they are going to go through all the nonsense of hiring someone to do this?. This guy works for the company, he must turn over the passwords when they are wanted. If he refuses then you have a real problem. Guys like this think they are the only ones who can run the place and everyone else is an idiot. We had that at Telerate back in the 80's. Guy was a total prick, bad attitude, etc. Of course he was the only one who could run things, he made everything run his way, nothing was documented, he put all kinds of personal "hooks" in everything. It was a nightmare. When he thought he was going to get fired he pulled the same thing as this guy. Not sure how they handled it but I know the Feds almost got involved becase these were stock market information machines. Once they had everything they needed they fired him.

Never let someone get too much power in a data center or computer department. If they have the kind of attitiude this guy in the article has then you are screwed.

 

[purple_minion]

Yeah, go tell that to a company that needs the passwords TODAY. Do you really think they are going to go through all the nonsense of hiring someone to do this?. This guy works for the company, he must turn over the passwords when they are wanted. If he refuses then you have a real problem. Guys like this think they are the only ones who can run the place and everyone else is an idiot. We had that at Telerate back in the 80's. Guy was a total prick, bad attitude, etc. Of course he was the only one who could run things, he made everything run his way, nothing was documented, he put all kinds of personal "hooks" in everything. It was a nightmare. When he thought he was going to get fired he pulled the same thing as this guy. Not sure how they handled it but I know the Feds almost got involved becase these were stock market information machines. Once they had everything they needed they fired him.

Never let someone get too much power in a data center or computer department. If they have the kind of attitiude this guy in the article has then you are screwed.

They obviously knew he was the only one that knew the passwords because they sat him down and flat out asked him for them. If you already know he is the only one with them then you need to be smart. You can buy a keylogger that you place between the keyboard and computer for $50, hire a guy for even $1000/hr for a whole hour to stick it on there, and come back in a month and download it to a file to find the password. It's going to be a lot cheaper then COURT for the city and the taxpayers. Also as it should be apparent whether he works for them or not he didn't tell them the passwords. It's the same thing as people getting hit at intersections because they have a green light... just because their light is red doesn't mean ****... it's not going to automatically STOP their car. It's a light and not a steel wall. You need to realize that just because someone should have done something doesn't mean they will, you need to look out for your own interests and if that means getting your passwords through other means then so be it.... it would be legal since they are your passwords and your equipment and your employee. If he was such a prick as everyone says that should have been a warning to "management" but apparently she's not bright. You don't trust the guy when you need to lock yourself in your office because he already doesn't do what you told him to by saying get to work and leave me alone. If people did what was expected then why do you have so many repeat burglers/drug addicts/sex offenders/murders. It doesn't matter WHO gets involved, people have free will and a choice and they can CHOOSE to NEVER EVER EVER give up the passwords if they want. Perhaps it's not smart but until we invent something to probe peoples minds and retrieve information it's really up to the person.