Childs, 45, effectively held San Francisco’s Fiber Wide Area Network (FiberWAN) hostage after giving himself sole access to the administrative passwords, which he refused to hand over to the city when requested by his supervisor. The network manages a large proportion of the city's law enforcement and payroll records.

Childs finally gave the passwords to San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsome after a 12-day standoff in July of 2008.

Judge Teri Jackson levied the sentence on Childs last Friday, with the 755 days in prison already served by Childs being applied to the sentence. This means Childs could be paroled in as little as four to six months.

According to the IDG newswire, during the trial Childs said he was only doing his job by withholding the passwords. He contended that that his supervisor, Department of Technology and Information Services chief operations officer Richard Robinson, was unqualified to have access to them.

A subsequent hearing as to whether Childs will be on the hook for the estimated $900 000 it cost for the city of San Francisco to resolve the incident will be held August 13.