San Francisco city computer hijacker faces fewer charges

It was last February when Terry Childs, a former employee of the City of San Francisco's IT department, sat down with InfoWorld's Paul Venezia in a jailhouse interview about his bizarre case. He was a high-level administrator of his division's computers, but after learning in July 2008 he would be reassigned to a different department, he sent those systems into a state of lockdown that only he could undo.

There's no doubt it was Childs who held city services in a virtual cryogenic state. Upon his surrender to authorities, he gave the Mayor the keys needed to unlock city systems. Childs faced four counts of tampering with city property and shutting down access. But last Friday, a judge tossed out the three tampering charges, reported the San Francisco Chronicle, leaving only the single count pertaining to the lockdown.

Showing absolutely no contrition during his interview with Venezia, Childs indicated that his goal was full exoneration, especially because the fate of his Cisco certification depended on it. "I'd lose my CCIE, and I worked too hard for that," he told InfoWorld.