This week, I wrote a few posts about Terry Childs and the City of San Francisco's "hostage situation". Based on the smattering of information made public, there seemed to be much more -- and much less -- to this story than city officials were divulging. I postulated that this sounded like a network-level issue, and that the fix couldn't possibly cost millions of dollars, especially if all we're talking about are logins and passwords to the routers and switches that make up the city's FiberWAN network.
Apparently, I was correct.
In a private email referencing those posts, and speaking under a condition of anonymity, someone with intimate knowledge of San Francisco's IT department offered to tell me what they knew. So far, I am reasonably certain that this person is who they say they are, and the information they have given me appears to be accurate.
I'm writing the story now, with much more information on the specifics and technical details of this case than have been released anywhere, to my knowledge. As soon as the story is posted, I will update this entry with a direct link to the story.
Update: Here's the full report: Why San Francisco's net admin went rogue
Posted by Paul Venezia on July 18, 2008 01:47 PM
