San Francisco mayor breaks password deadlock

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Steven Musil CNET News.com

Published: 23 Jul 2008 12:18 BST

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A computer-network hostage situation in San Francisco is over, thanks to negotiations with the city's mayor.

Terry Childs, a network administrator for the city of San Francisco, has been in custody since 13 July on four felony charges of taking control of the city's computer network and locking administrators out. Access to much of the city's information was blocked, including law enforcement, payroll and jail-booking records.

Childs had reportedly refused to surrender the access codes to his supervisors, but after a little more than a week as a guest of the city he had a change of heart and invited mayor Gavin Newsom to meet with him, according to a report on the San Francisco Chronicle website on Monday night. A secret meeting was arranged at the city jail on Monday afternoon, where Childs gave Newsom the codes to the network. The meeting reportedly was so secret that the police department and district attorney were not informed of the meeting ahead of time.

The codes given to Newsom didn't initially provide access to the system, but a call to Childs's attorney got the city back in the system.

However, Childs still faces a court appearance on the felony charges. Erin Crane, Childs's defence attorney, is expected to cite his co-operation during a court hearing on Wednesday in a bid to have his $5m (£2.5m) bail reduced.

Crane has argued that Childs was merely protecting the network from incompetent city officials who were trying to force him out of his job.

"Mr Childs had good reason to be protective of the password," Crane told the newspaper. "His co-workers and supervisors had in the past maliciously damaged the system themselves, hindered his ability to maintain it... and shown complete indifference to maintaining it themselves."

"He was the only person in that department capable of running that system," Crane added.

Credit: SF mayor gets codes to hijacked city network from CNET News.com

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