Fergie's Tech Blog

UNIX Admin Faces Prison for Trying to Axe California Power Grid

Robert McMillan writes on PC World:

A California man pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he shut down the data center responsible for managing the state's electrical supply.

Lonnie Denison, 33, is now facing as much as five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine after admitting to breaking a glass cover and hitting the emergency "off" switch at the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) data center in Folsom, California, on April 15. By doing so, he shut off the power in the data center. He was formerly a contract Unix system administrator at the center.

posted by Fergie @ 12/14/2007 06:37:00 PM