We reported earlier on the story about the network administrator who was arrested for withholding passwords. He has now learned exactly what the punishment will be for doing what he claimed was just part of his job.
Terry Childs, San Francisco’s former network administrator, was found guilty in April of a felony charge of denying access to a computer system after a 2008 incident in which he changed the passwords to several key parts of the city’s network and refused to hand them over to city officials.
The city argued Childs was a disgruntled employee who intentionally sabotaged the network after he learned his job was in jeopardy. Childs, however, claimed he was simply doing his job by keeping passwords from people without authorization to know them.
A jury sided with the city, and Childs was convicted and, last week, sentenced to four years in prison. He has already been in jail for more than 750 days, CompterWorld reports. That time will be counted toward his sentence.
In addition, Childs may have to reimburse the city for the $900,000 it said it spent cleaning up the aftermath of the incident.