Was The Fired And Arrested San Fran Network Admin Just Doing His Job Too Well?
Written by Evan SchumanAugust 2nd, 2008
The bizarre back-and-forth claims about the San Francisco network admin who was arrested after refusing to reveal key network passwords raises some troubling issues. Most pointedly, there appears to be some evidence that this admin was fired and arrested partially for having engaged in the precise security procedures that he was paid to deliver.
It may not directly impact a retailer, but the network security issues raised here are certainly relevant. Check out this wonderful analysis piece in InfoWorld that does the best job of summarizing and explaining the case that I’ve yet seen.
-Marc
August 12th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Wow, what a story. He’s still in jail? Where? When half of all PCs are pwned, it’s hard to call any security practice paranoia. When something goes wrong, it’s so much easier to troubleshoot when you know you’re the only one that’s made changes. I routinely provide my clients key passwords in a sealed envelope to facilitate that.
What with Hans Reiser admitting guilt, who knows what some geniuses will do, but this sounds more like the (meritless) Intel ‘hacker’ case to me.
If you’re good at IT, you inevitably end up in position of power, whether you want it or not. The ridiculous claims here and elsewhere establish a pattern of those who are technically clueless but lust for power trying to take them down.
P.S. I got confused reading the article ’till I remembered there’s a Pittsburg in the Bay Area.