The Department of Justice has charged the deputy social media editor of Reuters with helping hackers from Anonymous gain access to the main servers of the Tribune Company in 2010 so that they could deface news sites. Matthew Keys, 26, is accused of conspiracy to transmit information to damage a protected computer, transmitting …

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Friday 15th March 2013 00:40 GMT Anonymous Coward

Throw the book at him.

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Friday 15th March 2013 01:01 GMT Don Jefe

Three Years?

Why did it take so long for them to press charges?

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Friday 15th March 2013 01:03 GMT Steven Roper

Jesus!

conspiracy to transmit information to damage a protected computer, transmitting information to damage a protected computer, and attempted transmission of information to damage a protected computer.

Holy shit, talk about throwing the bloody book at the poor sod!

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Friday 15th March 2013 01:08 GMT Eddy Ito

Define "protected computer"

One place I worked at claimed to have protected computers. Since "dilbert" was the admin password, I'd guess it was only protected from the pointy haired boss.

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Friday 15th March 2013 01:22 GMT Katie Saucey

25 years?

I guess a lot of numbers get thrown out there with vague "hacking" laws these days. I read 10yrs earlier today @

Financial Post story

Since that anon idiot Sabu basically ratted him in March of 2011, why did the charges take so long? Maybe there was no real damage and no one really cares? or is The Tribune IT department a little red faced about not resetting a disgruntled ex-contractors creds after he left.

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1. Friday 15th March 2013 01:50 GMT Ole Juul
  
  Re: 25 years?
  
  I'm not sure myself, but does an account for an employee still belong to that person after they are no longer an employee? I would think that in this case the account would belong to the Tribune and that they would have been negligent in allowing Keys to still have valid credentials - that being tantamount to them willingly giving out the password themselves. Who knows. The story here could indeed be about The Tribune trying to blame somebody, anybody, on their own incompetence.
  
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  1. Friday 15th March 2013 02:56 GMT Katie Saucey
    
    Re: 25 years?
    
    "I would think that in this case the account would belong to the Tribune and that they would have been negligent in allowing Keys to still have valid credentials" I agree completely, the entity that owns the hardware usually lays down the terms of use (EULA I guess) before you get your first paycheck. I once had to sign an employee agreement about revealing the type of vending machines in the cafeteria (if anyone can qualify that?)
    
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    1. Friday 15th March 2013 08:30 GMT frank ly
      
      Re: 25 years?
      
      Terrorists will stop at nothing to strike at the heart of our way of life. If they knew the type of vending machine, they'd be better able to carry out an effective attack against them.
      
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2. Friday 15th March 2013 11:08 GMT Matt Bryant
  
  Re: Katey Re: 25 years?
  
  "......why did the charges take so long?....." I'm guessing this is clean up from the Sabu job - the FBI and NSA will have carefully gone through all the servers Sabu gave them, trawled through the Anon chat logs, emails and ftp connections, picked out their targets and carefully built cases against them. They will then have made an appraisal - charge now for the crimes found, or watch to see if the person in question leads them to a bigger fish, or attempt to turn them into an informer. I'm guessing this guy was too far down the Anon food chain for them to bother watching any longer, and he seems too stupid (gave them his login to a former employer!?! - DUH!) to want as an informer, so I guess he's on the "charge now" list.
  
  Have to laugh at the Anons'1337 skillz - not! Taking a traceable login from a former employer online in a chat room? Might as well have tattooed "arrest me now" across their foreheads!
  
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