There’s a reason why I say “Be nice to the IT dudes, they own all the good passwords”

 Face it, any well run company with any kind of IT shop has to trust the IT guys.  For all practical purposes, they OWN your systems (not you).  And when you have all kinds of wacky ideas of how people actually tick, you end up with this (Oh, by the way, this IS about San Francisco!)

Hapless municipal bosses in San Francisco have been locked out of their network by a disgruntled sysadmin charged with computer sabotage.

Terry Childs, 43 and of Pittsburg, California, was held on remand over the weekend pending the outcome of committal proceedings (an arraignment) on Tuesday where he faces four counts of computer tampering. Meanwhile his former bosses were unable to access San Francisco’s new multimillion-dollar FiberWAN (Wide Area Network). The network provides access to confidential databases including payroll files and law enforcement documents.

Childs allegedly created a password that gave him exclusive access to the system. Pass codes he gave to police failed to work. Even under threat of arrest Childs failed to cough up the goods, prompting officers to take him into custody on Sunday.

The sysadmin, who draws a basic salary of around $126,000, has worked for the Department of Technology for around five years. Childs was recently the target of disciplinary action over his allegedly poor performance at work. The San Francisco Chronicle quotes anonymous city officials in support of a theory that Childs rigged the system as an "insurance policy" against getting fired.

Memo to small biz CEOs – if it can happen to them, it can happen to you.

So, did they try the backup tapes from before they got locked out?