Statement of Dr. Sam Bowne

Instructor, Computer Networking and Information Technology at City College San Francisco

I have taught at CCSF for more than ten years. My field is computer networking and my specialty is network security. I am well-known in the computer security field: I am a Certified Ethical Hacker and an Associate of (ISC)^2, and I have given talks at Defcon, Toorcon, and many other industry conferences.

I am disgusted and outraged by the current situation, with our college humiliated by the press for no good reason. There is no major network security problem at CCSF, as far as I can tell. We do have a major public relations problem, however, caused by the officials whose job was to prevent such a scandal.

The Chief Technology Officer has hired an outside vendor operating a suspended corporation in San Francisco to prepare a secret report claiming that there is some major security problem. But he refuses to tell the faculty or staff at the college what he has found, claiming that it is confidential.

It's apparently not too confidential to tell newspaper reporters, however. So my only sources of information about this supposed "security problem" are articles in the San Francisco Chronicle and the CCSF Guardsman.

In those articles, I read that some computers had a virus in a student lab. I know that is possible, because even although we take good precautions against viruses, they are not infallible. There is nothing surprising or newsworthy about a few infected student machines at the college. The correct response is to clean the infected machines, improve antivirus measures if possible, and continue with business as usual.

The purpose of network security professionals is to prevent security issues from escalating into disasters, not to take unimportant matters and turn them into disasters.

For further information

Biographical information for Sam Bowne:

http://samsclass.info/contact.html

USDN: The outside contractor hired to provide security services to CCSF:

http://www.usdn.net/#/home/

California Secretary of State Business Search page:

http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/

A search for USDN shows its status as shown below: a SUSPENDED corporation.

The definition of a suspended corporation is here:

http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/be/cbs-field-status-definitions.htm#status

I quote it below:

Suspended or Forfeited: The business entity's powers, rights and privileges were suspended or forfeited in California 1) by the Franchise Tax Board for failure to file a return and/or failure to pay taxes, penalties, or interest; and/or 2) by the Secretary of State for failure to file the required Statement of Information and, if applicable, the required Statement by Common Interest Development Association. Information regarding the type of suspension can be obtained by ordering a status report. For information on ordering a status report, refer to Information Requests.
Written by Sam Bowne, 5 pm, 1-26-12