Comments on: San Fransisco Mayor Regains Control of the Network

By: Morgan Storey

Morgan Storey — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:41:11 +0000

@grav: I have met IT guys like this, on their network everything has to be done there way, even if there is a better more secure way. Flexibility is what leads to a truly good network. Control where control is needed though.
But I guess if you have been working on something for a long time you may get an attachment.
I think that is why situations like this shouldn’t occur, two people to a job, and both have to have the whole picture. Even then you move them around occasionally, not just so they don’t get attached but so they stay sharp and so they don’t get bored and look elsewhere.
On the cisco backdoor thing, I doubt they have one. I wouldn’t bet my life on it, but I doubt it. I used to know one of the IOS developers and they had a hard enough time meeting deadlines for advertised features, let alone having the time to put in a back door.

By: grav

grav — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:54:32 +0000

“Childs – whom some have labeled [as] an over-the-top control freak”

I read that article that was posted by a member in the other entry

(the one that announced Childs’ misdemeanor)

and while reading it, I started to think how exactly true the above was. Sure… many IT people think of their networks as almost their children… but isn’t locking them up and throwing away the key a little bit drastic?

Children are impressionable, and maybe leaving them in other people’s hands would change them into something else.. but that does not mean that they have to stay in the sterile home environment. I think Childs is having issues with himself more than others. He needs to learn to live a bit. Maybe if he was more comfortable with himself, he would not have these problems. I doubt he would not trust the other IT guys if they were his friends.

By: TrinitronX

TrinitronX — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:38:12 +0000

“Well at least we can have faith in our Cisco equipment, even the Cisco guys themselves can’t crack it so there’s no backdoor!”

This is probably only true for actual cisco equipment, however remember that fake/forged cisco equipment is floating around out there somewhere… most definitely with backdoors and other nasties.

By: zupakomputer

zupakomputer — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:45:10 +0000

The comments are likely true, as is the fact that folks trained only on those kinds of certifications are borg-trained to company standards; you don’t tend to get work in those kinds of places if you are a real person.
You have to sell your soul to the Temple of Money and fit yourself into a pre-determined mould that’s the real-life version of taking the blue pill.

And it all adds more weight to some of what I had commented on this already – that most of us know or think that such unscrupulous methods by companies are bog-standard carried out, why does anyone bother to persist in playing a game whereby they pretend they are not aware that such things are commonplace.

Note how blase we are that anyone would even consider wasting time so they can get paid more: consider how many will read that and think ’so what, that’s how it is’. And anyone is condemning that guy for what he did? Such a world is headed for nothing but the worst kind of trouble.

That kind of thing is precisely why there are hackers doing the online equivalent of the Falling Down guy: ‘your system is bs & it deserves to die’.

Does anything happen these days that isn’t controlled by microchips somewhere along the line.

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:18:43 +0000

I agree — if cisco had a backdoor, then they certainly wouldn’t use it in this situation. Let’s face it – it’s win-win for cisco, as they get a huge amount of free advertising, and they get to “prove” that their equipment is safe. I’m sure they do have a backdoor, as does the federal government. However, revealing one over something as little as this would be far more negative then any damage Childs could have done.

By: Gul

Gul — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:03:54 +0000

Loving the joke at the end !

“Well at least we can have faith in our Cisco equipment, even the Cisco guys themselves can’t crack it so there’s no backdoor!”

If Cisco had some backdoor in their equipments, why in the world they would used it for such a simple task ? Helping San Francisco city, is just a “basic” contract, even if it was in many medias. they were paid to get control of their own equipment, si what happened if they could get the password in 5 minutes ? Only the proof that their routers aren’t secure.

Anyway, good news for San Francisco, and hooray for the mayor.